Winchendon/Ashburnham

I was kayaking a marsh in Ashburnham last weekend and couldn't help being impressed by the hundreds of dew covered spider webs.
Some nifty webbing.

This Devil's Paintbrush helped brighten the recent dreary weather. I had nice walk along a bike path along Rte 140, in Winchendon on Monday. There were some nice birds too, some warblers that were well represented were Blackburnian and Canada Warblers along with a pair of Northern Waterthrush that was carrying food for their young.

The Red Eft, above, was on the edge of the bike path, I got on my belly to get this photo.

I dug a little hole, to set the camera in, right in front of its face and set to macro to get this "big as a moose" look.

This Broad-winged Hawk was very agitated, I was near its nest, but also the Porcupine (below) was climbing "its" tree.

This "shot" of the porcupine was a very poor consolation for the one I missed a few days ago, near Mount Watatic. I was in the area of the old Watatic Ski Area parking lot, when a mother and youngster ambled along within 15 feet of me. They stopped to eat some clover, the youngster was about 1/3 the size of the adult, it was quite a sight. Would've been even better if the camera wasn't back at car.

The Broad-winged hawk and Porcupine were just off Bush Hill Road, in Ashburham. Where is Bush Hill might you ask, why...its right near Pecker Pond!

Rumor has it the Catholics were livid and insisted they had to some how be separated .... and thus the state border of Massachusetts and New Hampshire was drawn at its current location to keep the two apart.

Its not too difficult to find breeding White-throated Sparrows in Ashburham where they are ofeten found along marshes, powerline cuts and recently logged areas.

This family of Mallards is probably getting sick of me, I've had to kayak this wetland a few times in the past week, each time disrupting their routine.........

..... Ditto for this family of Wood Ducks.