Two Spring Beauties

I spent yesterday walking about with a client on his 660-acre property in western New Hampshire mapping habitat features, peering into vernal pools, photographing plants, and listening to bird songs. We flushed a ruffed grouse and a barred owl, watched the antics of several pairs of yellow-bellied sapsuckers, and discovered dozens of spotted salamander egg masses in the vernal pools, including the following group.

A slight breeze kept the black flies at bay and the partly sunny day made for a fine walk in the woods. We bushwhacked up and down slopes, across fallen trees and ice-damaged saplings, and then more leisurely along several woods roads. Warblers sang as we walked, including ovenbird, black-and-white, yellow-rumped, black-throated green, and black-throated blue.

Two beautiful spring flowering woodland wildflowers caught our eye: trout lily and red trillium.