Up North Trip 2009-Day 1, Wednesday, April 15, 2009

I had the vacation time and the spring migration was in full swing so I took a few days and spent them “Up North”, in the swamps and wetlands of Mercer and Crawford Counties. This year was a little different though, I had monthly maintenance to do at work which couldn’t be done until Wednesday morning and I had to be back home for orientation for my new part-time job on Saturday morning. I would have much time to play and explore so I had to make the best of the time that I had. I was in the office before 1 am this morning, yes 1 AM!!! I got my maintenance done plus fixed an emergency problem that kept me there for an extra hour. I was back home and napping by 11:15am. By 12:45pm I was awake and packing the truck. I arrived at the camp of a sportsman’s club that I belong to that is near Lake Wilhelm by 2 pm. By 3:30 pm, I had the truck unloaded, camp set-up, the water heater going and the furnace fired up. I grabbed the camera equipment and went on my way.



The first stop was near the Lake Wilhelm marina where there was an Osprey nest last year. Well, as I found out later, the nest from last year was blown over in a storm but the ospreys moved the nest closer to the edge of the pond than it was last year. I was able to get some outstanding shots for both members of the pair. Just with that, the 10 hours of work earlier that day was worth it.



I left the osprey nest and drove north to see what I could find around the village of Custards in Crawford County which sits near the edge of the Geneva Swamp. If you drive North on I-79, the Geneva Swamp is the wetlands area that you pass over just south of Meadville. I didn’t have a canoe or boat to enable me to go deep into the marsh so I had to depend on my feet and truck to get me where I needed to go. I didn’t need much of either today though, I pulled over on the causeway near Custards and started scanning the wetlands with my Alpen Teton binos. In no time at all I spotted a small group of Blue Wing Teal. I’ve never been able to get close enough to this species for decent shots before and here they were less than 30 yards from me. I used the truck as cover so that I didn’t spook them too badly. I snapped several pictures before they made their way deeper into the cover of the wetlands and out of my vision.



While I was taking the pictures of the blue wing teal, I noticed a shadow of a large bird on the ground near me. It was late in the afternoon, the sun was in the west and I was facing east so I knew that whatever it was was above and behind me. I turned quickly and was lucky enough to see a Bald Eagle flying not more than 20 feet over my head!!! Of all of my adventures in the woods, waters, swamps and forests in my life, this was one of the most spectacular! A wild, formerly endangered, now threatened species within spitting distance. Sorry no pictures of this guy though.

It was getting late in the day, so I packed up the equipment and drove south towards the camp. I made one stop in the wetlands that are part of a gamelands on the north-western tip of Lake Wilhelm. I saw a pair of Hooded Mergansers here and another Bald Eagle but wasn’t able to get pictures of either.

My last stop for the day was on a causeway of Lake Wilhelm between my previous stop and I-79. I saw 8 different Ospreys here and also 4 Gadwall ducks.

I had enough for one day. I was hungry, it was nearly 6:30 and I had been awake for over 18 hours already. Tomorrow was another day and I would be able to spend all of tomorrow out and about. Stay tuned.