Sachuest National Wildlife Refuge, Middletown, Rhode Island.

Yesterday morning, the kids and I went down to Sachuest to walk the trails and to photograph whatever we could find.  We started at the salt marsh located on third beach,, where many semipalmated plovers were running around in the flats.  Also, a pier of white-tailed deer were walking through the flats, both a doe and a buck.  A least skipper was hiding in the weeds, plus a House sparrow set up for a good view and pose for photographs.

Semipalmated Plover Bathing

Least Skipper

House Sparrow

Buck White-Tailed Deer in the Marsh

Next we drove up to the main refuge and started walking along the Ocean view Trail coming across another of doe, plus immature male common yellowthroats and a large number of American goldfinches.  On the ocean side, people were fishing and then areas waves were crashing against the rocks.

Juvenile Male Common Yellowthroat

American Goldfinches

Waves Crashing on the Rocks

When we reached the trail that comes down from the visitors center, we continued along the Flint point trail.  Before we got to the lookout at Flint point, there is a cross trail that bypasses the point.  Normally, we do not take this trail, but, today I decided let's try it.  I am glad we did.  We saw two species of Clearwing moths feeding, plus goldfinches and house finches and a monarch.

Drill map

American Goldfinch

House Finch

Morning Glory

Monarch

Clearwing Hummingbird Moth

After finishing photographing on the side trail, we headed back to the visitors center, where overhead there were many swallows flying including rough-winged swallows.

Rough-winged Swallow

About the only thing that was bad about the visit, for us as photographers, was there were many people walking or running the trails.  The problem was that these people would cause the birds to flush.  However, it was great to see people out enjoying nature.

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A Long Morning at Gooseberry

Milky Way panorama at Gooseberry

Saturday, we spent a long morning at Gooseberry, from 3:15 AM until 7:30 AM.  It was a very clear night, with a brisk wind blowing in the Milky Way rising out of the Southwest and continuing overhead toward the Northeast.  The Milky Way presented different opportunities to photograph from various positions.  In fact, in some of the photographs, we even captured meteors and satellites.

Milky Way at Gooseberry

Milky Way at Gooseberry

Milky Way at Gooseberry

A few clouds started drifting in and as we waited for dawn to break, I took pictures of astronomical, nautical and civil dawn and then finally the sunrise.  We had some good color, but, if there were more clouds.  I think we would had had better color.  At the time of astronomical dawn, I was able to photograph the Big Dipper, Cassiopeia and Polaris.

Astronomical Dawn with the Big Dipper, Cassiopeia and Polaris

Nautical Dawn

Civil Dawn

sunrise

After sunrise, I utilize the golden light to take some landscapes along with different birds in flight.  What really made it interesting was the number of common loons flying overhead, which present the great subjects to photograph.

Landscape In the Golden Light

Common Loon in the Golden Light

Common Grackle's in the Golden Light

A wedge of swans flew from West to East and I was able to get one picture with the wings of the swans almost up and down.

Wedge of Mute Swans

Yellow warblers were flitting around and presented great subjects to photograph in a flowering tree.

Yellow Warbler in a Flowering Tree

Common Yellowthroat

To process the Milky Way photographs.  I utilized Collier's suggestion in his new book that I recently reviewed. http://photobee1.blogspot.com/2015/05/colliers-guide-to-night-photography-in.html



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Great Wass Preserve - Beals Maine

On Friday morning, since we did not have to meet the rest of our group until 2 PM, Doug and I traveled down to the Great Wass Island Preserve. I have not visited the preserve for about 20+ years but do remember it as a great place to visit, photograph and bird watch.
Directions: The preserve can be reached by car. From Route l take Route 187 to Jonesport, crossing the bridge over Moosabec Reach to Beals. Go through Beals to Great Wass Island follow the road (it turns to dirt) to Black Duck Cove (about three miles from Beals) where there is a marked parking area on the left.

Great Wass Island Preserve is a 1540-acre tract that encompasses almost all of the southern portion of Beals Island and is maintained by the Nature Conservatory. The island jacks father out to sea than any other land mass than Eastern Maine and results in extensive marine exposure. The combination of the waters of the Gulf of Maine and the Bay of Fundy produce a cool humid oceanic climate.
There are number of hiking trails on the preserve and if you want to travel on them, I recommend sturdy shoes, a hiking stick, insect repellent and sunscreen along with water to drink. You hike through woods and then up onto granite cliffs which overlooked the water, across-the-board walk in a marsh.


Moss on tree



Brown Creeper

Mushrooms

White-throaed Sparrow

Dragon's Mouth

Pitcher-Plant

Bunchberry

Canadian Tiger Swallowtail

Yellow-rumped Warbler - blur

You never know what you can find here, there are unusual plants, birds and even if you don't see them signs of mammals. We found fresh bear scat along the side of the trail which had to be no more than a half to one hour old.


Common Yellowthroat

 At one portion on a hike, a female common yellowthroat kept us company for at least a quarter of a mile.
We did not make it all the way to the coast because we came across an extremely wet area that was probably up to 2 feet deep.

If you are up in Down East Maine, Jonesport-Beals-and the Great Wass Preserve are worth a visit.