North Park , March 22, 2008

I belong to a group called Meet-in.org. This is a social group where members come up with ideas for events then post those events online; members that are interested then RSVP to attend the event that you’ve posted. These are the people that I go to Elk County with every year. On our last trip to Elk County, some of the folks mentioned that I should host a digiscoping event. Today was the day for the event. I had a few RSVP’s but due to the cold weather and early hour only one person besides myself showed up for the event. Beth and I met at the old bait shop at North Park at 7 am.

I was going to show her one of my regular spots where Pine Creek feeds into the main lake at the southern end of the park. The only problem was that the police had the road closed for a race of some sort. It was a little cold to walk the ½ + mile to the spot so we went straight to Marshall Lake which is a second lake in the park near the ice skating rink. This spot is one of the best places that I have found that’s close to home. While she was growing up Beth was an avid bird watcher so I had good company for the morning.

After we pulled into the parking area I pulled my binos up, scanned the lake and saw a Bufflehead. We quickly and quietly made our way to the footbridge to the island on the lake. Beth was already excited because she had never seen a Bufflehead before today. We went to the south end of the island and I found that my camera was acting up; I wasn’t able to get it to focus properly. I changed some settings and got the camera to work.

While I was fidgeting with the camera Beth was busy finding other new-to-her species: Hooded Mergansers and Ringneck Ducks. I was able to get some shots of the Ringnecks and Hoodies. Beth was enjoying herself because the first three species that we saw were some that she had never seen before. I was happy because I love to see people enjoy the outdoors.

We walked to the other end of the island and saw a few more Buffleheads as well as a Ring-Billed gull. My camera problems weren’t finished yet, the vinyl sheath on the cable release cracked causing the cable to work only intermittently. Needless to say I wasn’t very happy now. We watched a few more of the antics of the Hoodies then we both went on our way. I had an extra release at home so I wasn’t really in a big bind.

This morning I decided that if the spare release that I had at home worked, I would return to North Park the next morning to spend Easter Sunday with the critters. I also decided that I was going to take a few days off from both jobs and go “Up North”.