New England Photos Extra - Maui Part 2

This is in Haleakala Crater, you can take a horseback ride down into the crater. As you can see it is rather dusty; this is the Sliding Sands Trail. The company that runs this particular ride is Pony Express Tours.

The Haleakala Silversword Plant is an endangered plant that grows on the Haleakala Volcano.

Along the Road to Hana, we stopped and I go this photo of the surf crashing on the volcanic rocks. It was raining so the sky was gray that day.


Red Crested Cardinals, this look cool but they are an introduced species to Hawaii.



I kept on seeing these "chickens" everywhere I went. I thought they may have been Feral Chickens, escapees from early farms. I did some research an found out the are Jungle Fowl, they are said to be early decedents of our domestic chickens. These Jungle Fowl may be crossing with feral chickens; they look like chickens to me. This one stood in the middle of the road and would not move for the cars.


On the way up to the Haleakala Crater and passed a handful of bicyclists; I took a quick photo of this guy as he reached to top. I have to hand it to these guys; the road up is at least 30 miles long and the elevation at the top is over 10,000 feet...all uphill.


Speaking of bicycles; at this one place along to road to Hana(which will remain anonymous)is a place that you can peddle this bicycle to run a generator which in turn runs a blender. I thought it would be real cool to have a smoothie that I generated the power for. BUT, the girl behind the counter would not serve us because she wanted her lunch(they don't close for lunch). She told us to come back when she was done. So, no fun, no exercise, no smoothie, no cool story, end of story. That is all I have to say about that.

Great Blue Heron

Otis, MA - I took the kayak out a few days ago on the Otis Reservoir and took this photo of a Great Blue Heron fishing on the side of the river.

Bird Over Water

I just need to get something posted so here is a nice photo of a Great Blue Heron flying over the water.

Great Blue Heron

A Great Blue Heron I saw on my last kayak trip.

Bird on His House

A bird checks out some new digs.

Birds

I took a photo of these birds in my backyard this week. Sorry for the quality I wasn't going to post them but I figured bad photos are better than no photos.


This guy is the reason I trotted out through the snow to take a photo. He is a Pileated Woodpecker, they are big, about the size of a crow. I don't see many of these in this area.


This is a Robin. It is said that they are the first sign of Spring; well this dispells that myth. It was 15 degrees when I took this photo; yesterday it was 7 below zero.

Hamburger Crows

I was sitting in the car waiting for my wife to come out of the store and noticed one of these crows pecking at a white piece of paper. I then saw that he was after a hamburger. Then another crow came in and stole the hamburger from him. The original crow then grabbed a piece and flew off (see above). A minute later a seagull came to grab the burger from the second crow...the modern rules of the jungle.

BIRD WATCHING TRAIL

Collinsville, CT - This is the section of the walking trail through Collinsville that goes along a calm section of the Farmington River, where I took the previous photo. Birds frequent this section of the river.



There are signs to help you identitify the birds that you see there.

SEAGULLS ON THE FOGGY FARMINGTON

Collinsville, CT - I stopped by the Farmington River this morning and took this photo of seagulls hanging out on a sandbar. As you can see it was quite foggy today.

BATTERSON PARK

Farmington, CT - I had a few minutes before I had to show up for work so I stopped by Batterson Park to see what was up. The park was closed but I snapped a few photos. A few of a tree near the water and some of geese way out in the middle of the pond where there was some open water.

BIRCH BIRDS NEST

Now that the leaves are off I can see things hidden by those leaves like this birds nest. I found it interesting being made out of birch bark.

MORE ALASKA PHOTOS

Here are a few more Alaska photos; I will throw some in every so often.


A fishing boat on a calm sea.



This is a Kittiwake(birds) nesting colony.