Canadian Geese
Was driving around some back roads today while I stumbled upon a full field of Canadian Geese.
Don't think these geese got the memo. Psst, your suppose to fly south for the winter.
Red Tail Hawk
Went out for a ride this afternoon needing to get out of the house. Only went about 1/4 mile down the street and saw this Red Tail Hawk. After seeing him/her I was able to go back home and grab my camera.
At first the hawk did not notice that I was there until another car came down the street. At this point the hawk took a look around to see what was going on.
After noticing us the hawk placed himself so he was standing over his meal. At the same time he puffed up his chest trying to make himself look bigger.
I say he but it could of been a female since male or female both look the same.
I've been living in leominster for over 40 years and I can say that this is not a common site in this area. I can remember as a kid there was a Red Tail Hawk in the French Hill neighborhood that we followed for a few days. I've seen them circling around especially around the Nashua river, but never seen them after capturing supper.
I need to start carring my camera with me more often, almost missed this chance.
Early morning
Got up before the crack of dawn this morning. Decided to take advantage of it and took off with my camera. I first headed out to Sky View Middle School hoping to capture the last of the fall foliage. I'd have to say that we are now on the down side of peak. That rusty orange is starting to dominate the area. Unfortunately, I found that it was too early for Sky View and the light was not there yet.
I continued on turning on Lancaster Ave driving into Lunenburg. I've been framing this shot in my mind for quite some time now. Funny how things happen like that. The problem I found with this location was a garage that is directly in front of the barn. I had to take the photo from an angle and I was not sure how it would come out. I have to say that I'm happy with the results.
I continued on through Lunenburg to another spot that I've been framing in my mind. Wasn't going to happen though since someone was out mowing the lawn. Imagine that, mowing the lawn at 7:15 in the morning. Hate to be his neighbor.
Heading back to Leominster I figured that I'd take Day Street and go by Cherry Hill Farm. Got this photo for my troubles which needed some post process work. There was a lot of contrast in the original with the sun washing out the barn and the grass in the shade being very much under exposed. Luckily or on purpose I should say I shoot in raw format. Doing so allowed me to change the exposure on this photo and generate a single image HDR photo. I sort of like HDR but find some people over do it some.
I now found myself heading to I-190 to exit 5. From here I took a left and ended up in Oakdale at the rail trail. This trail has been closed since the spring due to part of the trail being washed out. It seems some beavers built a dam which caused this damage. They re-opened on September 26th. At the entrance you find this beautiful row of trees.
Sitting underneath them was almost magical. The sun lighting the leaves was impressive.
I hiked the trail all the way to Holden reaching the Springdale Mill site. The Springdale Mill was built in 1867 and operated until 1905 when the Metropolitan Water and Sewerage Board took over the property. This was part of the plan when they created the Wachusett Reservoir. Someday I'll have to blog about Wachusett Reservoir, lots of history when it was built.
I found the rail trail to be very relaxing following the Quinapoxet River. After a roughly 4 mile walk I was rewarded with this view below.
I'm not much of a birding person, but I believe these are Blue Heron's. Made me wish I still had my 200mm - 400mm lenses. This was about as close as I could get with my 18mm-200mm lenses.
Out for a ride
Headed out for what ended up being a 125 mile ride this morning. Didn't have my DSLR camera with me, just a point and shoot one. Need to get a bag on the bike some day that will hold my DSLR. With no destination in mind I found myself in Princeton. Thought about going to the top of Mount Wachusett but being a hazy day I did not think it was worth it. Soon after passing the entrance I needed to make a stop for these guys ...
They were in no hurry to get anywhere neither were they scared of me.
Jumped back on my motorcycle and continued on to the center of Princeton where I took a right onto route 62. I followed 62 (which is lousy with a bike now due to construction) to Barre falls. Been a long time since I've been there. Use to fish the Ware river at this spot back in the late 1980's. Not much has changed. I started to walk down to the falls to take some pictures but the mosquitoes were bad and I decided to turn back.
While in the area, there's been this scene that I've had in my mind for awhile that I've been wanting to capture. So I headed over to route 68 and stopped at Brigham Pond. Below is the picture I had in mind, though I wish I had my DSLR with me.
My Canon P/S does not shoot raw and lacks the capabilities that my Nikon D90 does. If I had the Nikon with me I think this would of made a nice HDR image.
I left Hubbardston and headed towards Gardner. From there I jumped on route 101 and followed it into Ashburnham until I reached route 119. My thought here was to follow this into Jaffrey, NH. Before reaching the town center though I saw a sign for the Cathedral of the Pines. Here is another place that I haven't been since the late 1980's. I was hoping to get a good photo of Mount Monadnock but the haze was too thick and the photo's did not look good. I did manage to take this photo of a farm house and barn
I figured at this point it was time to head home. I found my way to route 202, route 101 then 31 which I took into Ashby. In Ashby I jumped on route 119 into Townshend all the way to route 13. Once on 13 I followed this back home to Leominster.
St Cecilia’s Door
Pictured here are the side doors to St. Cecilia's Church. Growing up I was an alter boy at this church. The church was built in 1931 and was meant to be used as a cathedral. For reasons unknown to me this did not happen though. The doors you see here are not the original doors. The original doors were made out of wood. I could not find a refference as to when these doors were put in. If I remember correctly they were installed in the mid 1970's.