OK, my bad...its been over a month since I posted anything. I've been busy...shorebirds and autumn colour have been very time consuming subjects, learning about Lightroom and new features in CS3, parents visiting from the UK, the dog eat my keyboard (only kidding)...
This is my first full fall season in New England - last year I had only just arrived in the USA, was busy purchasing household essentials (you know, 40" LCD TV, DVD player etc) and waiting for the slow boat containing most of our furniture.
This year I am trying to make up for it and see a lot of colour in a lot of places. I am trying to get some images too.
I started with a trip to central Vermont during the first week of October where the colour was pretty patchy with most colour on the higher ground in the center of the state. I was clearly too early but decided to try a few locations as I was there.
A quick check of the iconic Jenne Farm as I drove past Woodstock showed that the maples didn't have enough colour to make a dawn shoot worthwhile so pressed on to Rutland, having randomly picked Chittenden Reservoir on the map as an alternate spot for the following sunrise.
Up at 05:00 and drove off into the dark, trusting my TomTom to get me to the right spot...let me start by apologising to the residents of Chittenden...I had no intention of driving repeatedly up and down the main street, turning into short dirt roads that turned out to be private driveways nor driving the mile up a single track road to find it was a dead-end with no turn around...all between the hours of 05:30 and 06:00 in the morning.
Thanks TomTom, that was a really special morning treat for everyone concerned.
Resorting to traditional navigation with a Delorme mapbook, I finally arrived at Chittenden Reservoir with enough time to set-up to catch the first light of the day at Lefferts Pond. As I was waiting for the sun to light a group of trees, I was stunned to see a Beaver swim right up to me. It was like it wanted to see what I was taking pictures of!
I then took advantage of the sun and vibrant colour around the shores of the main reservoir where a Common Loon (Great-northern Diver) took an interest in what I was doing on the shore coming close enough for a few environmental shots with a bare 70-200.
When I returned to Lefferts pond - the Beaver had been replaced by three Otters, one of which climbed up onto a log and proceeded to eat some kind of large shell thing. An amazing end to a glorious morning - it doesn't get much better.
I spent the rest of the day searching for more colour and rural scenes further North but the clear skies prevented any further photography and I ended up back near Rutland. I found a nice small pond surrounded with colour, so whilst I waited for the wind to drop and the sun to lower, I headed up a small, tumbling stream surrounded by green moss and ferns...
Whilst standing on a rock in the middle of this stream looking for an interesting composition, I slipped and fell backwards...luckily I didn't get wet because I landed on some nice, hard rocks...and my camera didn't crash into the same rocks because I grabbed the tripod with my left hand. Of course, this twisted my little and wedding finger to an unnatural angle and I am only now, 10 days later, getting enough strength in them to type.
That little fall ended my chances for more photography and I decided to cut my trip short...but I still enjoyed it and it is experiences like the Beaver, Otters and Loon that keep me exploring and finding new places - its all about just being there.
(and finally, thanks to Max for the title to this post)
December has been crazy busy – ice storms, power outages and working hard on a simple plug-in for Lightroom…more to come on that soon!
Avian, 
The people staying on one of the boats dropped a freshwater hose in the water and the Manatee started to drink from the hose - one way to get fresh water I guess! This is only my second encounter with this large marine mammal, having glimpsed the back of one a couple of years ago, I was amazed how confiding this one was.
