Sharon's Iconic Travel Photography Blog

Wooden Lobster Trap Trees

Different locations bring their own culture and traditions into how they celebrate Christmas. Maine incorporates its fishing industry into its holiday displays. Lobster trap Christmas trees are part of displays in different towns.

The ones I am focusing on this post are the ones made of the old style wooden lobster traps. They are stacked up like a tree. Then decorated with buoys, lights, and or greenery. Personally I love the ones that combine the greenery with red buoys. The ones above and below use a lobster image as a tree topper.

Wooden Lobster Trap Trees- Nubble in Cape Neddick, Maine

It sounds like the lobster trap tree tradition was initiated in Gloucester, Massachusetts first in 2001 and the idea spread to other towns in New England. Many times these trees are community organised with local lobstermen lending the traps for the displays.

Wooden Lobster Trap Trees- Ogunquit, Maine

This last tree is my favourite because of the views around it. This one is at the Beachmere Inn. It is topped with a starfish. The Beachmere has a great restaurant with views of this tree and the ocean. You can eat lunch or dinner and enjoy this view when sitting near the windows.

What do you think of this tradition? I hope you had a Merry Christmas and I wish you a Happy New Year.

Welcome Back Shorties!

Short Eared Owls are winter visitors to New York. They spend the warmer months up in Canada and Alaska, but end up coming down south for the colder months. We have usually seen them between November and the beginning of March.

I did not expect to get any good images of the owl the day I was there. However, we had a brief window of light between the clouds and a cooperative owl who flew near me during that time period. Don’t you love it when they do that?

Welcome Back Shorties! Searching for a vole

Later, when it was just too dark, it flew quite close to me, but alas the images were just too grainy.

Here’s hoping I can see them close up in good light. Have a Terrific Tuesday!

Post Office Holiday Windows

Are you getting into the holiday spirit? The post office is. These are two of their windows that were decorated by Splash Art Murals.

SplashArtMurals can be seen through the link below:

https://splashart.biz/collections/all

Have a splendid Sunday!

Vintage Christmas Truck 2025

This was a vintage Ford truck I saw in front of an old stone farmhouse. It appears to be a Ford F-3 pick-up truck.

The First Generation F-3’s appear to be sold from 1948-1952. I did play with the colour between the two images.

Have a splendid Sunday!

Elf on a Shelf Shenanigans

According to one definition, shenanigans can be a high-spirited or mischievous activity. Here the elf is pushing Bumble in a pint sized shopping cart.

What shenanigans are you up to? With all the Covid, flu, and other viruses being passed around, I hope all are healthy. Have a fabulous Friday!

Peregrine Falcon on the Palisades

The Palisades is a long stretch of steep cliffs on the west side of the Hudson River that runs from lower NY into New Jersey. At their highest point they are about 540 feet in height and their length is about 20 miles. Peregrine Falcons like to nest on buildings, cliffs, and under tall bridges. The Palisades is a good spot to view Peregrines.

Peregrine Falcons are the fastest birds in the world. They can fly faster than 200 miles per hour. I caught this one before sunset. It never moved from the tree while I was there.

This falcon was perched on a tree cliffside but was facing the land on top and not the river. A pair of squirrels was chasing each other nearby, but the falcon did not seem interested in them. They are known to capture a variety of birds, but will steal fish and rodents from other birds. They also eat bats. I am trying to significantly reduce the size of my picture files to conserve space on the blog, but the images when I do that are not as sharp as the original. Have a wonderful Wednesday!

Raccoon on November 15

If this is still the same raccoon I have seen on a few other occassions at this treehole, it is getting bigger. It is either more skilled at finding food or has learned well the art of raiding garbage cans and dumpsters.

Do Raccoons Hibernate?

I did not think they did. When Idid a google search a lot of pest control sites popper up. However I did find information from NorthernWoodlands.org. According to their site “Although they don’t hibernate, raccoons do hole up in dens during the bitterest days of winter and are able to sleep for long stretches of time – up to a month – without heading out into the elements….Raccoons, though typically solitary creatures, will sometimes den in groups during very cold weather.” This period of less activity is entering a state of torpor, which helps them to conserve their energy. NorthernWoodlands also says they will kick other animals out of their den to take it over.

So it would seem this could be the same raccoon. They do eat a lot to build up fat in the autumn to help them survive the winter like other animals do.

This tree hole appears not to go further inside the tree, and I only see this raccoon here occasionally. I still think this is its occasional sleeping spot that gets sunlight at least half the day. Enjoy your Sunday and have a marvellous Monday!

Mandarin Ducks November

At this location I was able to spot a pair of Mandarin Ducks. The male is brightly coloured and the female’s colours are more gray, brown and white.

FEmales

The female can lay from 9-12 eggs. The ducks reach maturity at a year old. Despite laying 9-12 eggs they say there are only about 65,000 Mandarin ducks in the wild.

Males

Male Mandarin ducks go blend in after breeding season. The males molt or shed the bright feathers, taking on the colouring more like females for a few months. Males gain back their winter plumage in the US in October or November from what I understand.

Mandarin ducks are not hunted for food because they taste bad according to Sea World. Here in the US some people and zoos have Mandarin Ducks and they escape and join other wild ducks. Have a Splendid Sunday!

Male Wood Duck in Autumn

I have seen wood ducks at a few places, but only from a distance. They seem very skittish. Sometimes it may be because the location gets a lot of traffic in terms of people, but they seem more on guard. This location had less people and when I was by myself I had the most luck.

Wood ducks will hang out in wetlands, marshes, streams, ponds and lakes. I have seen them in wetlands, streams, and ponds. People put up nesting boxes and they will use them. They will also nest in trees. They are native to most of the eastern part of the US year round.

Wood ducks will eat seeds, fruit, insects, acorns, flies, beetles, caterpillars, and a variety of plants. They feed by making short, shallow dives called dabbling.

I was at this location for about 3 and a half hours trying to view this duck between branches, grasses and other obstructions. Sometimes it is worth the effort. Have a Happy Monday!

Northern Shoveler in New Jersey

These are some more birds I saw in New Jersey. I think the above picture is a female and a male. They say females have an orange bill. This one on a different image does appear to have an area of orange on it. This male might in in the transition between non-breeding to a breeding male. The examples of breeding males I see online show a black head tinged with green, reddish brown flanks with a white chest. This one seems to have more dark areas on its chest. It may be the lighting conditions but I did not see much, if any green on it’s head.

Nonbreeding Male

All About Birds identifies nonbreeding males as darker overall. They have a yellow eye. All About Birds lists New Jersey as its non-breeding area.

Have a Happy Thursday!

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Do Raccoons Hibernate?

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FEmales

Males

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Nonbreeding Male

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