This year for vacation we decided to do something a little different and go a bit further away. The plan was to setup a homebase near Providence, RI and then travel around the New England area checking out as many spots as we could over a 2 week period.

Our Route

We decided to make a detour through New York City so we could see the Statue of Liberty and drive by Central Park. We made a couple stops along the way at different stores that we scoped out beforehand. The trip went pretty smoothly overall outside of some aggressive drivers throughout Connecticut.

Our Day Trips

Food

Our motto while traveling is to avoid any places we can go to at home as much as possible so we can really experience the area.

Here are some highlights:

Breakfast

Lunch

Dinner

Sights

Over the course of our trip we visited as many places as possible.

Providence, RI

This includes downtown Providence, Oddities & Curiosities Expo, The Arcade, and Providence Place.

Salem, MA

We walked around the shopping district and hit a lot of interesting shops/places.

Mystic, CT

Cool little town with a bascule bridge also made famous by the 1988 movie, Mystic Pizza. We visited this area on 2 separate occasions.

Westford & South Deerfield, MA

We originally came to this area to check out the Butterfly Place & Magic Wings Butterfly Conservatory. We then came across something completely unexpected with the Yankee Candle Outlet.

Other Various Places

Here are just some random shots from places we visited.

Wildlife

This was our main attraction to the area. We wanted to get out and explore as much as possible. So we ended up visiting a ton of Audubon Society Refuges, State & National Parks, and Private Parks.

Here are some of the highlights:

Scenery

This was the other reason we came to the area. Beautiful coastlines, rustic structures, and a lot of history.

Nicole and I decided to try and get out and take photos today after we didn't have much luck getting photos of the Northern Lights that happened the previous night.

First we tried to go to Catoctin Mountain Park but with road closures, it was hard to get in and out. I took a few photos there but nothing worth keeping. After that we went to the Fountain Rock Nature Center in Walkerville, MD.

We saw some Sandpipers, various common birds, and also a Tufted Titmouse going around eating bee hives. Unfortunately none of my Titmouse photos turned out well. Just as we were about to leave all of a sudden I heard some hooting and I decided to go look for it - hoping to finally be able to get a picture of an owl. Something that has alluded me for years.

After wandering around for about 5 minutes, we finally saw it about 30-40ft up near the tree tops. We had a hard time getting a good look at it because of all of the branches getting in the way but for the first time I was able to capture an owl - one of my bucket list photo items.

We moved around a bit trying to find a better vantage point to get an unobscured shot but it started branch hopping and eventually we lost visual contact with it and couldn't find it after that.

It was still kind of early so we decided to go back to Gambrill Mill - Monocacy National Battlefield which is a favorite spot of ours to get cool photos. Soon as we got there, I saw a hawk eating some sort of small mammal but by the time I got my camera ready to shoot it flew away into the trees to finish it's meal.

This time around it was kind of lackluster and wasn't a whole lot to get photos of. We did notice that they opened up a new trail section so we decided to go down some of it before heading home. After about half a mile, we weren't seeing too much worth continuing so we turned around and headed back.

Out of nowhere, Nicole let's out a really loud gasp and started freaking out. I asked her what was wrong and she ran into the tall grass and pointed out one of her bucket list items - a luna moth.

It was still waking up and not ready to start flying yet so she was actually able to pick it up and hold it for about 5 minutes. After it finally warmed up it's wings it fluttered away into the tall grass.

Nicole and I decided to go out this weekend and hit a couple new spots plus a spot I've had a lot of success at - Wildwood Lake in Harrisburg, PA.

First set of photos are from Wildwood Lake.

I tried out the AI Generative Fill feature in Photoshop to see if I could remove a branch from in front of the Eastern Great Egret and it seems to have worked decently well.

After that we headed to Quittie Creek Nature Park, but we didn't have a ton of success there. Ended with only one decent photo but I think it is my favorite photo from the day.

Went back out to try and find the barred owls that were spotted there recently but once again came up empty handed. It wasn't entirely fruitless though because I did come across this beautiful Cooper's Hawk hanging out above the field looking for food.

Went out for a stroll with Nicole after a small snow system rolled through. There was talk of a pair of owls being in the area but we weren't able to find them. In the end, were able to grab a photo of a Downy Woodpecker, Northern Flicker, a couple of Cardinals, a Nuthatch, and a Squirrel.

June 3, 2023

Late Winter to Early Spring 2023