Miscellaneous

With running timelapses, scouting locations, searching for those last few insects, panoramas, finding old grave sites and collecting seeds, I have been like a chicken without a head these past few weeks. So lets get too it.
While scouting on Sundays for cool locations for timelapses, I also do panoramas. It is my dream to set up two or three cameras in sync, then stitch them together for a pano TL. Maybe one day even HDR, even though I hate HDR. Learn to meter properly & average all ready, will ya!
So here is a couple of panos for my travels, the first one is a small bit of flooding on the Causeway in South River.

Like Venice, only in New Jersey

This second one is from by the Veteran's Memorial Bridge also in South River. I cropped out the lovely Edgeboro Landfill on the left. On a warm Summers night you can really smell the Jersey Pride.
Anyway once you crop, its a pretty nice view.

Fall in The Garden State

Now I took a little trip into East Brunswick last Sunday to get some me time. I've just discovered this place Ireland Brook Conservation Area, also Know as "The Pig Farm" to some. It is not the whole park just an area off of Riva Ave in East Brunswick. Find this sign and you will be there.

IBCA has about one trail so far, there might be others but I haven't explored enough to tell you. What it does have is a old family grave plot. Only one of the stones was readable and it marked the grave of Jonathan Provost 1803-1839. Finding it was quite a suprise, while walking on the "Blue Trail" I ran across it after crossing a large clearing. It looked recently cleaned up, figured it was family but after some internet searching, found out the Nov 5th was Fall Trail Day in NJ. Must have been cleaned up not one day before my visit. There were also a few broken stones, so who knows how many people are buried there. Will be sending an email to the East Brunswick Historian to find out more, will keep you up dated. Anyway here are some pics, Provost headstone was taken on my Crackberry, because I forgot my normal lens in the car. My favorite is the second one, kinda weird!

 

A tough read, I know.

Hey wait, That ain't no 19th Century keepsake!

After the walk at Ireland Brook my travels took me to Davidson's Mill Park. You may have remembered that place from the last post. Fall was in full effect here, don't know if it was peak, but it was pretty sweet. The air was warm with a light wind and the trees were a whispering. That is the sound that they make when the wind blows. I strolled around looking at some storm damage from Snowtober and made my way to the back pond. Spotted a few Autumn Meadowhawks and some Muskrat damage to a tree or maybe it was a Beaver, I don't know but it was either of those two. While that is some natural damage and just part of life, I did find some human troubles.

The plight of a Beech Tree.

I can't say, I've never tagged a tree, but this is a little to much for me. The path to the pond was quite an enjoyable time, saw some extremely large Oaks and Maples as well as some huge Beech Trees. No wonder they get sightings of Pileated Woodpeckers around here. I don't know if the tree stands at this park are old growth but they look it. The canopy is pretty high and dense, must be nice and cool on a summers day. Anyway that is about it, so I leave you with some tree pics from the park. Thanks for reading!

A Scouting I Will Go

Now in the Great State of New Jersey evening temps are getting low. This means no more Moth Nights or Dragonfly Surveys, Fall is upon us. What to do now? Time-lapse photography of course!

I've been getting back in form by running some over the last few evenings in the backyard. So Sunday was "Scouting Sunday", which I will do for the rest of the Fall & Winter. My visits were local mostly parks &  other public locations.

The first visit was to a site I know pretty well. Dallenback Lake in East Brunswick, NJ. The site of many a moth night with the Friends of the East Brunswick Environmental Commission. It is a nice local but not really what I was looking for. While there, I swung by the Freecycle Event that EBEC was hosting. Picked up 7 roll of expired film from the 80's, that is how you make art if you didn't already know. I also talked to Dave Moskowitz about next years Moth Week, which is going to be Bad Ass. So check it out and maybe add your location to the list. Come On, DO IT!

Later I made my way to Farrington Lake in EB, but unfortunately my favorite site from there was right on the road. Don't think a camera could make it for 3 plus hours there, but it is a pretty view.

Right on Riva Ave.

Easing on down the road, my wandering brought me to a place I always forget about. Davidson's Mill Pond Park in South Brunswick, NJ. Right at the end of Riva Ave very near RT. 130. I stuck to the pond area, even though there is much more to see there. I decided on this vantage point.

Best part is, the bench I'm sitting on.

I'll be using some of my old Canon 10D's for this project. Shooting full 6mp at fine Jpeg then cropping down to 1080 HD. Running the cameras will be my Stop Shot set in Interval Mode along with the Canon TC-80N3. Also, a new Thermos & one of those Hunters Blankets will most likely be needed. Just a couple of hours out in the cold for 1800 frame, how bad could it be? It should be a fun time, YouTube post to follow soon along with Bird Lists from my adventures.

Sunday 10/23:

Ruby-Crowned Kinglet

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Tree Swallow

American Tree Sparrow

Belted Kingfisher

Blue Jay

American Crow

Cooper's Hawk

Red-tailed Hawk

Turkey Vulture

Non Bird List

Common Buckeye

Common Wood Nymph

Black Saddlebags Dragonfly

Meadow Hawk Dragonfly

European Hornet