Great Spangled Fritillary

After a summer of almost no insects due the the drought,  I walked out on my back deck, and these beauties were on the Butterfly Bush beside the deck.  What a treat!

Pratt Farm and the Drought..

     I visited Pratt Farm at 4:00 PM today (Sunday, August 28th) and became aware of what our severe drought is doing.
     The first awareness was the absence of insects.  No insect availed itself of the meal at hand.  I saw two Dragonflies, and one Damselfly in an area two months before where there were hundreds.  I saw a grand total of two butterflies. All of the hardwoods have not regenerated their leaves, and was it my imagination, or were all the paths so much brighter than usual.  The large lake has become heavily infested with growth, probably 4/5 of it covered.  Three places on the trail, you can normally hear water, but only one had that wonderful sound.  I saw no Pink Lady Slippers, which were so numerous last year, but I may have been too late in the season.  And a lack of bird calls, one Chickadee, one Downy.  
      I fear we will lose an enormous amount of deciduous trees, and it may take years to regenerate what we have lost. 
      Here are some pictures from the walk.

The field before the pond.  Very small leafage, already beginning to change for the fall.

The growth on the pond.  

Looking up above the pond, the thinned leaves that won't grow back

without water.

Algae at one end

Some water flowing into the pond, but not much.

And a lot of leaves on the trail like this.

And, it seems so much brighter on the trail

You look up, and you see why.

Nice to capture one insect.

All most all the color seen on the hike

The Poison Ivy seems the exception!

Alex and Harvard Nat. Hist. Mus.

Alex and I had his first visit to Harvard's Museum of Natural History.  He liked most of it, but he is perhaps just a little young for it.

Jackson, Oliver, whales

Remarkable day of whale watching out of Newburyport.  Jackson had never been on a whale watch (I took Oliver several years ago), and we had a lot of great sightings.  A mother and calf put on a show, and at one point the calf swam under the bowsprint where the three of us were standing, as close as I have ever been to a whale. Here are some pictures.

Jackson, 13, and Oliver, 11

Both will be at St. John's Prep next year.

The "bowsprint" hanging out over the water.  We spent the day there, with great views of all the whales.

A sister ship.

The mother ("Pinball") and calf.

Here is the blowhole. 

Great Shearwater

Mt. Washington by Prius

For the first day of our 49th wedding anniversary trip to Waterville Valley, NY, we took the auto road up to the top of Mt. Washington.  It is quite a trip.  Besides no guard rails, you have to be very, very carefull when meeting another car going in the opposite direction, down or up.  (Cars down have the right of way). But we had a chilly, somewhat cloudy day, with incredible views.