The Adventures of PA Digiscoper

In Memory of Lew

2010-03-16T19:44:00.015-04:00

Back in November of 2005, I was interviewed for and accepted a part-time job at a retail store called The Sportsman’s Warehouse. This was a new store for my area and I didn’t really know what to expect. A few days after the interview, I met most of the other people that I would be working with at a meeting. One of those people that I met that night was Lew. Lew was to be the manager of the department that I was hired to work in, he was one of a large number of outstanding people I was to work with during the time that the store was open for business. Unlike the rest of us, he spent about 10 days at another store in the company for his manager training so he had just a rough idea of how things worked. He just told us to relax, things would work out.

Later that week, I showed up at the store set, this is where all of the product available for sale at the store is delivered and set up for display and eventual sale to the buying public. It was an “all hands on deck” sort of thing and it was nuts. There were managers from other stores there helping out and giving each department a guiding hand, then before they left, they tried to make sure that we had an idea of the products that we had for sale. Through this, Lew was there working hard and trying to get as much knowledge as the rest of us. Before we knew what happened, the store was open for business and we were on our own. Lew, being the natural leader that he was, reassured us that we would make it, we just needed time to find our footing. I must admit that the first few weeks were crazy for us: Lew, Steve, Frank, Harry and I. We had just a small bit of the knowledge needed to really sell what we had there. Some product research was done along with a good bit of studying of the catalogs that we had available. We all worked together comparing notes and soon enough we were able to become a team that worked relatively well together.

Through all of that, Lew was there. Lew turned into more than a manager though, he became a leader and a friend. He was always ready with a joke or a story. After his long years in retail, he knew too many tricks and tips to keep us moving on the road to where we needed to be. He knew how to make you relax and show the customer how to trust you, which is something that is very important, especially if you want repeat customers.

Fast forward to September 2006: I had just returned from a few days in the forests of Elk County, PA, and was full of stories about seeing the wild elk herd, roaming the mountains and just plain good times. Lew showed some interest and I gave him all of the information that I could. A few weeks later, he made a short trip to the same area and told me about the trail and mountain overlook that he found. During my subsequent trips to Elk County, I would regularly visit these areas to add to my experience and to remember a friend.

Skip ahead again, this time to mid-March, 2007. When I worked with Lew that weekend, he told me about his recent hike at McConnell’s Mill State Park, just an hour or so north of the store. When Lew would get into his story telling mood, he could hold his audience captive on just about every word. It seemed as if he could make you feel that you experienced it with him. You could say it was a type of magic that he had.

Three days later, I received a phone call from one of my cohorts in the department, Steve, he had some bad news. Lew had passed away suddenly. It was a truly tragic loss and a great shock for all that knew him. The following Saturday, we all got together with some of Lew’s friends and neighbors to remember the man that was, in a way that he would have appreciated. We had a few drinks, told too many stories, laughed a lot and even cried a little. This man called Lew touched a great many people in his life.

The “show” had to go on as they say however and those of us in the department had to keep going. I can’t speak for the rest of them but I know that there were times that I could feel Lew there guiding me. Maybe it was only in my head, but who can truly say for sure? Soon Jim became the new department manager, Harry left to enjoy his retirement, Steve and his wife Liz moved to Virginia to open another store. Eventually Jim moved onward to another department and Tyler came in as manager. Frank and I were the only original cast members left. Through the years and team changes, we always kept one of Lew’s business cards hanging in our back room.

Then came March 2009, it was announced that our store was closing. I won’t go into the why’s and wherefore’s, this isn’t the proper forum, but it seemed as if it was the end of an era, short though it was. We worked through the mark-downs and clearances. Frank was the first to leave the department after the announcement. He had found another part-time job closer to home. I told him on his last day that I was going to take Lew’s card with me on my last day and pay a little tribute to him when I had the chance. As I was telling him this, we turned around and saw Gus. Gus was Lew’s neighbor and best friend. I filled him in on my plans along with Frank. My last day came at Sportsman’s in early April, when I left that day, Lew’s business card went with me.

Frank and Gus were the only two people that knew of the plan for my tribute to Lew and here it is.

In September 2009, I made a one day trip to Elk County, PA. I brought the digiscope along as usual, got some good pictures and even a few videos of the elk herd but I brought something else, Lew’s business card. From the time that I left my house that morning, the card was on the dashboard of my truck, it was as if Lew was taking one last trip to the mountains. As the morning marched on, I made my way to one of the places Lew told me about after his trip in 2006, the Fred Woods trail. I left the digiscope in the truck and just went for a walk in the woods with the business card in my shirt pocket. After the walk through the woods, I drove further down the road to the mountain overlook that Lew told me about.

At the overlook that morning the fog was just rising out of the valley and the sky above was slightly overcast but it promised to be a good day. I pulled Lew’s card out of my pocket again and went for a short walk around the overlook. I got back to the truck in the gravel parking area and paid my final tribute to this man that we called Lew.

As the card burned itself out on the gravel that morning, I knew that a small piece of Lew would forever be there, looking out over a grand valley in the mountains of North-Central Pennsylvania.

Lew was a manager, a leader, a story-teller, a jokester and a specialist in what he did but most of all, he was a friend.

Goodbye, Lew, until we meet again one day.

I'm still around

2010-03-16T18:52:00.001-04:00

I'm still around, I just haven't had much to post about.

Up North Trip 2009-Day 2, Thursday April 16, 2009

2009-07-18T12:13:00.017-04:00

I know many places in the Mercer and Crawford County area to go for pictures so while I ate my dinner last night I decided where to start today. My decision was to start at the Erie National Wildlife Refuge(ENWR) in Crawford County, then go to Woodcock Creek Lake, next would be the state gamelands at Cambridge Springs and then to the Pymatuning area.

There was a heavy fog over the valley that the ENWR sits in this morning, I wasn’t able to see very much at the first two stops that I made in the refuge but my third stop was near the refuge office and I had some luck at the ponds there. I got some good shots of a Greater Yellow Legs which is a shore bird that spends much of his life in wetlands and near water. They are not an abundant nesting bird in Pennsylvania but they do migrate through PA towards their normal nesting grounds in Canada.

While I was still near the office, I got some shots of other species in the ponds and grasslands in the area. These included a Red-Winged Black Bird.

A Hen Wood Duck checking out a nest box.

The last species of note that I was able to get at the ENWR office area was a Pileated Woodpecker. These woodpeckers are nearly the size of a crow and are really something to see in the wild.

I had no luck at Woodcock Creek Lake like I had this day http://padigiscoper.blogspot.com/2009/01/crawford-county-11-11-2008.html
So I moved on to the gamelands at Cambridge Springs in Northern Crawford County.

The gamelands area at Cambridge Springs is a relatively large wetland area managed by the PA Game Commission as a resting place for migrating waterfowl. I parked the truck and meandered through the area. I knew there were several ponds well into the gamelands so I made my way there. I was able to get shots of Green and Blue Wing Teal and Ring Neck ducks. I also saw some Pintails, turkey vultures and two bald eagles.

I left Cambridge Springs and drove to the Pymatuning area to see what I could find there. Near the spillway, I found some painted turtles sunning themselves on logs in a pond. For some reason I can never pass up a chance to take pictures of turtles.

I also took some pictures of Ring-Billed Gulls that you will almost always find around the Spillway here. I’ve taken pictures of this species of gull before but not with the new scope so I took the opportunity to take some good shots.

From the spillway, I went to the Nature Center that is run by the PA Fish/Game Commission. Here I was able to get shots of Tree Swallows, Purple Martins and a Brown-Headed Cowbird. I also saw another three bald eagles soaring over the water in the preserve near the nature center.

It was now late afternoon so I turned towards the camp to see what I could find on my way back there.

I was nearing the Lake Wilhelm area when I spotted some buffleheads in a pond near the road. I pulled over to try for some shots of these diving ducks. This is yet another more rare species for this area and they re great to take pictures of when you find them, especially if the light hits them right, the males head will almost glow with iridescent colors. Unfortunately, I didn’t get that effect on my pictures today.

My next stop was the same place as my first stop yesterday; the pond with the Osprey nest near the Lake Wilhelm Marina. One of the adult ospreys was in the nest this afternoon and I also saw two Great Blue Herons building two different nests near the back of the pond.

That’s my adventure for the day, tomorrow, for my last day of my trip for this spring; I would have a guest along for the ride. Stay tuned to see what happened.

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

2009-07-18T11:53:00.009-04:00

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.

North Park, Sunday, April 12, 2009

2009-07-18T11:30:00.007-04:00

It’s Easter Sunday, 2009. Two years ago I started what has become a tradition for me; to head to North Park at dawn to see what kind of pictures that I could get. This morning wasn’t very productive but it was still interesting none the less.

It’s turkey mating season and before I even got to Marshall Lake, I saw some strutting tom turkeys. I grabbed the camera and made the best stalk that I could. Turkeys have great eyesight and these were in the open so I didn’t have much of a chance of getting very close. After using terrain to may advantage and crawling slowly over 50 yards, I was able to get within 110 yards of the turkeys. The only problem was the turkeys were constantly in motion and would turn towards me for a good picture. Oh well, these things happen.

After the turkeys went back into the woods, I went over to the island on Marshall Lake to see what I could find. I saw a Red- Breasted Merganser that again wouldn’t cooperate and pose for me. I also found there a Pied-Bill Grebe that is another more rare species for this area. I got more shots of wood ducks and even a few inanimate pictures too.

Easter Frost

North Park, Tuesday, March 24th, 2009

2009-07-18T11:05:00.006-04:00

Well mom got her hip transplant this morning. The hospital where she had the surgery is just a few minutes from North Park. She told us that there was no reason for us to stay around the hospital during the surgery. My brother lives maybe 10 minutes away and my sister maybe 15 minutes. She told me to bring my camera along and go to north Park instead of sitting around. Being the good son that I am I had to do what mom said. My sister and one of my brothers, stayed at the hospital, my second brother went back to his house to take care of a few things and I went to Marshall Lake at North Park.

I didn’t want to be gone from the hospital very long no matter what mom said but I had a lot of targets in the hour that I spent at North Park this morning. The first chance I had was of a Northern Cardinal that was perched in a tree near where I parked.

My next opportunity came with a pair of Hooded Mergansers that didn’t want to stay still to have their picture taken. The pictures of them are a little too blurred for my tastes unfortunately.

I even snapped a few shots of some Mallards and a Canada Goose that were resting on a log across the lake from me.

I also got a few shots of a Common Grackle, a European Starling and some House Sparrows that were looking for nesting sites.

The highlight of my morning however happened when I was driving back to the hospital. I was still in North Park, just past the Boat house when I saw a Snow Goose. I parked, grabbed the camera and got some quick pictures of this guy. Snow geese are very rare for this area. They pass north of here on their migration and they use Middle Creek WMA near Harrisburg as a migration staging area.

Well after this, mom’s hip transplant went superbly. She was in good spirits but was sore which was to be expected.

Update, July 18, 2009: Mom says that her hip makes her feel like she is 10 years younger. She has mobility that she never thought that she would have again.

Route 28 Corridor, Harmarville and Deer Lakes Park, Saturday, March 21, 2009

2009-07-18T09:58:00.011-04:00

The morning dawned chilly, clear and crisp so I loaded up the camera equipment for a quick run North on Route 28. The red-tailed hawks are near the middle of their pair bonding and mating season and I usually see several along this stretch of Route 28. I also hoped to stop at a pond behind a shopping center in Harmarville and Deer Lakes park to see if the swan was still there.

Driving North on Route 28 this morning I didn’t see many good signs until I neared RIDC Park which is an industrial park that straddles both sides of the highway. When I neared the off ramp for the industrial park, I spotted a hawk perched atop a lamp pole. I nearly wrecked the truck getting to the side of the road just to take pictures of this guy.

I was only able to snap about 30 pictures of the hawk before he flew off but the morning was only starting. I tossed the tripod into the truck to make my way to Harmarville.

When I arrived at the parking area near the pond, I immediately spotted the usual Canada Geese and Mallards as they were bumbling around the parking lot. I got out the equipment and walked towards the pond. When I was within view of the water I saw several Wood Ducks and one Green Wing Teal. This was my first chance to get shots of these critters with my new scope so I quickly set up and started shooting what turned out to be some of the best pictures that I’ve ever taken. Yes, I’m convinced that the new scope was worth every penny.

I continued to shoot the woodies and teal but didn’t even pass up some shots of the mallards that were there. Again, the mallard pictures turned out great.

The morning was marching along so I packed up for the drive to Deer Lakes Park to look for the Mute Swan that I saw there in January. When this species moves into an area, they are usually there for a long time so I felt good about finding him.

I wasn’t to be disappointed about finding the swan this morning either, he was there in all of his glory. I also spotted a hellacious hybrid duck that I first saw here last year. This guy associates with one of the normal, white farm ducks that lives on the lakes here. I believe that this duck is a hybrid between a white farm duck and a Mallard.

I stayed here for close to an hour before deciding that it was time for me to make my way home to get some work done. While driving south along Route 28, I was fortunate enough to find another Red Tail Hawk perched on a different light pole at the off ramp for RIDC Park. Yes, what I initially thought was going to be a light digiscoping day turned into a pretty successful event for me.

Moraine State Park and Lawrence County, March 15, 2009

2009-07-18T09:27:00.008-04:00

Well I got some good news and some bad news this week.

The bad news: The Sportsman’s Warehouse is closing. I will be losing one of the most enjoyable jobs that I’ve ever had.

The good news: I purchased the Nikon ED50 Fieldscope that I have been using. I had over $800 in gift cards for Sportsman’s so I collected them all up and purchased the ED50 and a Remington 870 shotgun.

So after a very hectic week I drove north to Moraine State Park and Lawrence County for the morning. I was excited to have this new scope and really wanted to see what shots I could get today. My first stop at Moraine was the South Shore Day-use Area. Within minutes of pulling into a parking area, I got some great shots of Killdeer and a few coots.

Further up the cove of the day use area, I spotted some movement in the water. The movement turned out to be a large raft of mixed diving ducks. There were close to 100 in the group which was made up of Ringneck Ducks, Redheads, Greater and Lesser Scaup plus a few Ruddy Ducks.

From the South Shore area I moved on to the boat launch at McDaniel’s Road. Last year around this time I got shots of a pair of Osprey that were nesting less than 150 yards from the launch itself. What do you supposed greeted me when I pulled up today? A Bald Eagle!!!! He was just a handful of yards away from the nest that the osprey used last year, perched on a tree enjoying the morning sun. I’ve seen my share of bald eagles over the years but this was the first close enough for me to digiscope clearly.

The bald eagle wasn’t my only good fortune, while I was at that boat launch area, I also got some good shots of an eastern bluebird that was flying from nest box to nest box looking for love. This was the first chance that I’ve had to get bluebird pictures so with this plus the eagle, I was happy with my success for the day.

I left the state park and made my way to a few spots in Lawrence County that I’d heard about through the PA Birds mailing list. I’d never been in this area before so I had no idea what to expect, I was just out driving through the countryside to see what I could find. I eventually found a small pond with a small flock of Ringneck Ducks which I got some very good pictures of, better than most that I’ve gotten before this.

Bridgewater and North Park, March 7, 2009

2009-07-18T08:55:00.009-04:00

I'm back from my hiatus. Yes, I haven't had much time to update this and I'm at least 12 posts behind so let's get started.

I’ve mentioned here before that there was a flock of Canvasbacks and Redheads at the mouth of the Beaver River for most of the winter. I still had the Nikon ED50 Fieldscope so I decided to take a little ride this morning to see if I could get some shots of them with this loaner scope.

When I got to the Bridgewater area I was surprised to find that there were quite a large number of Scaup, both Lesser and Greater, in the water as well. Most of the ducks were relatively close to shore so I did what I needed to do to get as close as possible to them. I’d take a few pictures then move a little closer, repeating as much as possible. In the end I got within 30 yards of the ducks on the river. That’s not very bad considering that these ducks are very wary.

While I was playing around with the ducks, I saw a Robin in a tree near me so I took a few pictures of him as well.

After about 2 hours of playing around here, I saw that it was time to move closer to home. I had to pick up my brother’s dog (Cousin Buddy the Chocolate Lab) around 11 am so that my brother and his family could go on vacation for a week. I drove to North Park to see what I could find there.

When I arrived at North Park I was surprised to find that there was still some ice left on the water of both lakes. I drove on to Marshall Lake which is one of my regular stops just to kill some time; I had a little over an hour left to play. I was quite pleased to get pictures of another Robin, an American Tree Sparrow and a Northern Mockingbird.

Nine-Mile Run and My Yard. Sunday, March 1, 2009

2009-04-24T13:00:00.006-04:00

One of the benefits of working at the Sportsman’s Warehouse is being able to borrow different equipment for field testing. I have been wondering how much of a difference ED or Extra Low Dispersion glass in a spotting scope would make in my pictures. It just so happens that we had a Nikon ED50 spotting scope in stock so I borrowed it for a few days.

I decided to make a trip to Nine-Mile Run on the Monongahela River in Pittsburgh. I knew that I could find something there even if it is just a few mallards. When I arrived shortly after sunrise, I was surprised to find a Great Blue Heron, two Double Crested Cormorants and some Ring-Billed Gulls in addition to the usual mallards. I quickly set-up the equipment and got to shooting. I didn’t have much time to play around however because, as usual, I had things to take care of at home.

After about 90 minutes of taking pictures and testing my original fieldscope in comparison to the ED50 fieldscope I had to pack up and leave. When I got home, I downloaded the pictures to my computer and went on with my chores. It wasn’t until later in the afternoon that I was able to check out the pictures from the morning. Wow!!! What a difference!!! The colors are much more true to life, the image has more crispness and chromatic aberration has just about been eliminated!!! I was truly surprised, especially since the ED50 scope is physically smaller and doesn’t pass as much light as my 60mm fieldscope. I decided immediately to throw on a coat, set up the camera equipment and sit in the yard for a while to see what else I could get shots of that day.

I guess you could say that I got lucky in my yard this afternoon. I was able to get pictures of Tufted Titmice, Robins, Black-Capped Chickadees, House Sparrows, Dark-Eyed Juncos, Mourning Doves, White-Breasted Nuthatches, Downy Woodpeckers and Red-Bellied Woodpeckers. I’ve already gotten pictures of most of these species with my regular scope so I was able to compare the results of both fieldscopes. Let’s just say that I have got to get me one of these.

My Yard, February 15, 2009

2009-04-24T12:58:00.005-04:00

I was off from both jobs today. I had a lot of chores to do so I didn’t really plan on doing much digiscoping. However, I found out that today was one of the days for The Great Backyard Bird Count which is run every year by the Cornell Lab of Orinthology and the National Audobon Society. The Great Backyard Bird Count is used as a study of bird populations thoughout North America. You could also submit your pictures for a chance to win a few prizes. I figured why not, so I set aside an hour to sit in the yard near my feeders to see what I could come up with.

Even though I didn’t get pictures of everything, I enjoyed the afternoon. The full list of what I saw is:
Red-Tailed Hawk – 1
Red-Bellied Woodpecker – 2
Downy Woodpecker – 3
Blue Jay – 2
American Crow – 117
Black-Capped Chickadee – 4
Tufted Titmouse – 12
American Tree Sparrow – 8
Song Sparrow – 3
Northern Cardinal – 3
House Sparrow – 12

For more information on the Great Backyard Bird Count, go to http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/ .

National Aviary Pittsburgh, February 2, 2009

2009-04-24T12:53:00.004-04:00

Since the Steelers played in the Super Bowl on February 1, I decided to take February 2 off of work to recover. My idea of recovery was to spend a few hours at the National Aviary on Pittsburgh’s North Side. If you have never been there, it is a very interesting place to visit. It is broken up into different habitats for various species of birds. You could pretty much call it a zoo for birds.

I arrived shortly after the aviary opened for the day, it wasn’t very crowded so there were times that I had the place almost all to myself. I got all sorts of pictures including Brown Pelicans, Boat Billed Herons, Wood Ducks, Flamingos, Scarlet Ibis, Spoonbills, Harlequin Ducks, Hooded Mergansers, Inca Terns and many other species.

I monkeyed around here for over 3 hours getting shots of just about anything I could see. It was a great, relaxing day.

Mouth of the Beaver River, Rochester/Bridgewater, PA Sunday Feb 2, 2009

2009-04-24T12:45:00.002-04:00

I had heard through the PA Birds Mailing list that there was a large flock of Canvasbacks and a few Redheads in the open water where the Beaver River meets the Ohio River in the Rochester/Bridgewater area of Beaver County in western PA.

Each year you usually see a few of these diving ducks around here so they aren’t extremely rare but to have numbers like this is rare.

I had only previously seen these two species once before and that was at Duck Hollow last year. I couldn’t get any decent pictures of them then so I was determined to get some today.

If you don’t know, a diving duck will actually dive under the water to eat small fish, plants, mollusks and other critters. Dappling Ducks such as mallards, rarely if ever dive under the water, they usually just tip over with their fanny sticking out of the water. From what I’ve heard, divers actually look like they are flying under the water as they swim around looking for food. I’ve never seen it but I would love to get pictures of it.

A large raft of canvasbacks was about 150 yards off shore just feeding like crazy, I guess that you could call it a feeding frenzy. Because there was so much activity going on with these ducks I couldn’t get an accurate count. I tried three times to count the ducks and each time came up with a different number, the first was 83, the second was 80 and the third was 81. I’ll stick with the count of 81 Canvasbacks which is an incredible number of this species for this area.

I was just happily taking the pictures when I noticed that I was finally getting cold, the camera battery was running low and the memory card was filling up. I decided to walk back to the truck and head for home. On the way back to the truck I caught site of a few Canvasbacks very close to shore. I would be able to get some good shots of these guys if I didn’t spook them. I took my time, crawled towards them and was rewarded with some very good shots of drake Canvasbacks.

As I was nearing the truck, I again caught site of something on the river. I used the binos to check it out and spotted 5 Redheads resting not far off of the boat dock near where I was parked. I was able to get some shots of these guys too.

Finally the battery was dead, I was frozen and the memory card was full. It was time to head for home to rest up before watching a little football game this evening.

Oh, the football game? The Steelers won the Super Bowl.

Nine-Mile Run, January 24, 2009

2009-04-10T11:45:00.002-04:00

I had heard that there were some Gadwall visiting at the mouth of Nine-Mile Run on the Monongahela River just south of Pittsburgh so I took a quick ride to check them out.

Unfortunately, the lighting wasn’t very good and the Gadwall wouldn’t cooperate so the pictures that I got of them were not very good. Still I’ll take them until I can get some better shots.

I also got some good shots of a few Mallards. The three people that regularly read my blog know that I’ve taken so many pictures of Mallards that I only bother with them when I can get better than average shots.

My Yard January 18, 2009

2009-04-10T11:38:00.007-04:00

I had some free time but no good scouting reports mainly because all of the lakes and ponds in the area were frozen. I decided just to sit in the yard and see what I could get from the bird feeders there. It was cold so I layered up and sat under the deck with the camera.

I got some good shots of Song Sparrows, Dark-eyed Juncos, Tufted Titmice, Black-Capped Chickadees, Mourning Doves and Northern Cardinals.

I was patient enough to watch the song sparrows to see where they were going. It turns out that they had some roosts or nests under my neighbor’s deck. Each time they would come back out to feed they would perch on the lattice on the edge of the deck before going to the feeders. I was lucky enough to get a few shots of them sitting there, staging before their snack.

Moody Road Ponds, Imperial, PA. January 4th, 2009

2009-04-03T13:14:00.005-04:00

I’ve finally had some time to update this page so here we go.

I had heard through my scouting reports on the PA Birds mailing list that there were some unique species visiting the ponds at Moody Road in Imperial, PA. I made the effort to get out there to see what I could find and if I would be lucky enough to see them. According to the reports, there were four snow geese( two white phase and two blue phase) plus four greater White-Fronted Geese and some Cackling geese at the ponds.

Greater White Front Geese

I arrived before sunrise and was happy to see that all of these geese were there in addition to many Canada Geese. The geese that I was after were over 200 yards away so the pictures weren’t as good as I like but they’ll work for me until I can get better shots of them.

Snow Geese, Note the color differences.

Each of these species is relatively rare for this area of Pennsylvania so I was happy just to see them. Cackling Geese might be a once every few years visitor to the area. They were pretty interesting too. They looked just like a small Canada Goose, roughly the size of a Mallard.

While I was taking my pictures of the Cackling Geese, I noticed something else on the pond, a group of 6 Black Ducks. Again these are a relative rarity for this area.

So based on what I saw and the pictures that I got, even though they weren’t up to snuff, it was a good morning for me.

Cackling Geese, 5 Black Ducks and a Canada Goose thrown in for scale. The cackling geese are in the front.

Elk County and Deer Lakes Park 1-2-2009

2009-01-21T12:52:00.010-05:00

I had decided a few weeks before that I was going to make a run to Elk County, PA to see the elk during my Christmas break. I’m usually off work from my main job each year between Christmas and New Year’s so I had some free time.

I woke up bright and early at 2:50 am this morning to make the drive north to see the elk. I’ve written about the Pennsylvania elk herd here before and my regular reader will know that I love the area where they are located. After slowly getting myself going this morning, I was dressed and out the door shortly before 4 am. Snow was expected for the northern PA counties so I wanted to give myself enough time to get there without needing to hurry. It’s usually almost a 3 hour trip from my house to the elk country.

I took my time and drove carefully north on Route 28 to I-80, the drive was a little tricky at times because from about the half-way point up 28 to Brookville, the roads were untreated by the road crews and I found too many icy spots. I don’t know how it happened, even with my usual stop at the Sheetz in Brookville, PA, but I made it to Weedville, PA by 6:30 am. Weedville is right on the border, more or less, of the PA elk country. I don’t know how I made it up there that fast either, I wasn’t driving over the speed limit, I was actually driving under it most of the way due to the road conditions. Since I was very early, the sunrise wasn’t expected for almost an hour, I decided to stop at a local gas station/convenience store to fill up my tank and kill some time. I ended up having a real nice conversation with an older, local gentleman about the elk, rabbit hunting and the woods in general. He was a typical, small town guy: spend 5 minutes talking and he’ll be a friend for life.

My new friend told me that there was a herd of 25 elk being seen regularly in the Caledonia area which is only a few miles from Weedville and on my way to the heart of the elk country. He actually said that they have been spending the last few nights in the yard of the Caledonia Church which can be seen from the road and if I was lucky they should be there this morning.

As it turned out, I was lucky; the herd of 25 elk was behind the Caledonia Church. Unfortunately it was still to dark to take any pictures so I just pulled to the side of the road and watched the elk for a few minutes through my binoculars. I figured that had to be a good sign for the day.

I left Caledonia and proceeded east on Route 555 towards Benezette and into the heart of the elk country. I saw nothing really of note along the road so when I got to Benezette I decided to take a drive up onto Winslow Hill to see what I could find. Sure enough, when I got to the top of the mountain and approached the first viewing area, I saw more elk in a field to my right.

I found a place to park off of the road and grabbed the digiscope. Like a fool I left my binoculars in the truck, more on this shortly. Before I even got to the field where the elk were, I was almost run over by a full grown cow elk and two first-year calves as they crossed the road. I think that they were as surprised and I was because one of the calves skidded on the slippery surface, fell on its side and slid for a few feet when it saw me. The darn thing nearly hit me. Ok, he was about 5 feet away but that is close enough when you have 300+ pounds of four legged critter sliding out of control.

I made my way to the brush on the edge of the field where the elk were and got quite a surprise. There were elk everywhere!! I set up the digiscope and started taking pictures. It was at this time that I realized that I left the binos in the truck. I wanted to get an accurate count of the elk in the field but couldn’t do it properly without the binos due to the overcast conditions and falling snow. I was at the time too well hidden in the brush and the elk were too close for me to try to sneak out to get the binos, I’d have to wait. How well hidden was I? I had a cow elk come within 40 yards of me and never realized I was there. I’ve had elk closer to me but most of those times it was during the mating season when they are more concerned with mating and less about humans. The cow knew something was amiss in the brush where I was hidden but she couldn’t figure out what was wrong. Of course I was fully dressed in camo at the time. I might have been able to draw the cow in closer but I realized that my elk calls were sitting on the kitchen counter at home instead of in my pockets. I guess I forgot a few things this morning.

I stood there for almost 45 minutes, snapping pictures and listening to the herding calls of the lead cow. With the exception of the wind it was almost like heaven.

I left this field and walked back to the truck. I spotted the cow and two calves that had almost ran me over bedded down in a field just in front of the truck. I shortened the tripod as much as I could and belly-crawled towards the three elk so that I could get as close as possible without them spooking. I ended up less than 20 yards away and happily snapped pictures of one of the calves as it relaxed in the falling snow of the morning. The wind soon shifted, which happens quite often on this mountain top, and the three elk caught my scent. Even though they never fully looked in my direction, they got up and walked out of sight towards the edge of the field.

I went back to the truck, got my binos and went to the field with the large herd. Through the binos I was able to count 39 elk in the field. That count, plus the three in the other field and the 25 behind the church brought my morning total to 67 elk and it was barely 9 am.

After I got everything back in the truck I made my way back down Winslow Hill to Benezette and turned east on Route 555 towards the Hicks Run area. I haven’t seen elk in that area in two years but I am not giving up hope. I didn’t see any elk while in the Hicks Run area but I did see a Pileated Woodpecker and a Great Horned Owl while I was driving along. Unfortunately they were both quick glimpses and there was no way I was going to be able to get pictures of them. I did almost have a major mishap while I was in Elk State Forest in the Hicks Run valley. I was about 2 miles into the forest on an access road when I nearly lost control of the truck. I was able to get the truck stopped before it ended up in the well swollen Hicks Run stream. I guess these things will happen when you ignore signs that read “CAUTION NO WINTER MAINTENANCE BEYOND THIS POINT” and you’re driving on well over 6 inches of packed snow and ice.

After I got my truck oriented in the right direction to leave the forest I made my way west on Route 555 and out of the PA elk country. I did manage to see another small herd of 18 elk along Route 555 but found no safe place to pull over to take pictures. This brought my total up to 85 elk for the morning which is a new daily and trip record for me. The most that I had seen in one trip was 82 and that was over three days last October. I had a big smile on my face and a great sense of refreshment as I left the elk once again.

My fun for the day wasn’t finished yet though. As I was driving south on Route 28, I decided that it was still too early to go home and I still had plenty of memory card space left. While I drove south, I tried to think of a place to stop for pictures. I knew that most of the lakes and ponds that I could think of in the area would be frozen over due to the cold weather that we’d been having and that chances of seeing waterfowl on them would be slim until Deer Lakes Park entered my mind. Of course!! Even though the lakes there are small, they usually have an aerator running during the winter to help prevent the lakes from fully freezing. DLP wasn’t far from Route 28; it was on my way home so even though I was already somewhat tired I decided to make a visit.

When I arrived at DLP I was happy to see that the middle lake was still partially ice-free but I was very surprised to see that there was a Mute Swan on the water in this lake among the Canada Geese and Mallards. I found a place to park, grabbed the digiscope and got as close as I could. Since this is a small lake the waterfowl that are usually found here are somewhat used to people because there are folks that walk around the park regularly for exercise. I was able to get right to the edge of the pond that the swan was on without him spooking. I got enough pictures of this swan to fill up the 2GB memory card that I had started in Elk County.

That was enough for one day, I made my way home but never expected what I would see on my next digiscope adventure….Stay tuned.

My House 12-31-2008

2009-01-21T12:44:00.006-05:00

Last summer I did a small bit of landscaping in the yard between my house and my neighbor Joanne’s house. I removed the sod, put in scalloped border stones, lava rock and posts to hang bird feeders from. It looks quite nice really. I have four feeders there for the winter and many smaller birds are visiting the feeders regularly.

I decided on this last day of 2008 to sit under my deck with the digiscope to see what kind of pictures I could get of my visitors. I was in for a busy morning.

I dressed warmly due to the cold weather, grabbed my folding stool and the digiscope and moved the area under the deck.

I had plenty of opportunities while I was hiding from the birds which were only roughly 22 feet away. I got many shots of Song Sparrows, House Sparrows, Tufted Titmice, Mourning Doves, Dark-eyed Juncos and even a Cardinal. While I was out, some snow fell on my hilltop, making most of the pictures that I got quite scenic. I was surprised by the Dark-eyed Juncos; I’d never seen one in my neighborhood before today.

A few unexpected surprises even fell my way. Another neighbor pulled into her driveway while I was taking the pictures. Even though I was in plain view of her, she never saw me because of the dark clothes I was wearing to hide in the shadows. I thought that she was going to jump out of her skin when I said “Hi Sharon”. We had a good laugh about it after she calmed down. A short while later, Sharon’s daughter Kaitlin brought her dog out for a walk. Evidently Sharon didn’t tell Kaitlin about me being out there because I scared her almost as bad as her mom. Kaitlin watched me take some pictures and was fascinated by it, she wants to know when I’m going to do it again.

As usual, the pictures can be seen on my Picasa page...
http://picasaweb.google.com/richwiz34

Allegheny County 11-23-2008

2009-01-16T20:09:00.009-05:00

Earlier this week I had heard of an odd waterfowl species that was showing up at Nine Mile Run on the Monongahela River near Pittsburgh. This species was an Atlantic Brant which is very rare for this area; they are much more of a coastal bird. According to the reports that I had heard, the brant was staying in the vicinity of the 9-Mile Run stream mouth almost all day. I decided to get up early this morning to see if I could find this guy.

I arrived at 9-Mile Run shortly before dawn and set up my equipment, the weather was clear and cold with a temperature in the mid 20’s. I no sooner had the equipment set up when I spotted the brant, he was standing in shallow water, just off of the gravel bar that juts out from the shore near the mouth of 9-Mile Run. I quickly snapped some pictures before the sun became too bright because I was facing Southeast and the sun would have been almost directly in the lens of the digiscope and ruined the pictures. I was also able to get some relatively good video of the brant. I was glad that I got out this morning to see this guy, because he is a very rare visitor to Allegheny County.

While I was there I saw an odd looking duck, it was multi-colored and a little larger than a mallard. It was probably some sort of domestic duck that found its way to the Mon River.

You can also find videos of the Atlantic Brant here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEB-CjUQez4

here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UV6oBvd-j_w

and here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgWgcdRw8Xg

Eventually the brant made his way down the river with a small flock of Mallards and he was quickly out of my range. It was still early so I decided to pack up and head to North Park to see what I could find there.

I arrived at North Park to find most of the main lake frozen with just the usual flock of Canada Geese there. I checked Marshall Lake and found that completely frozen. I thought that I was out of luck and made my way back through the park. I was nearing the park boundary when I spotted a flock of 30 Wild Turkeys near one of the houses in the park. I quickly pulled over and grabbed the digiscope.

The turkeys were just coming into the field near this house to eat so I made the most of the opportunity and started snapping pictures. Shortly after the flock entered the field, someone cam out of the house and threw some corn into the field for the turkeys. They made a beeline for the corn so I adjusted the digiscope and continued snapping my shots of the now much closer birds. I was even able to get some short videos of the “Turkey Feeding Frenzy” that I was witnessing.

The turkey videos can be found here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orxdNA7anYQ

here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjkPqPEo3sw

and here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLVtO7_zWwY

In a short time, the battery in the camera started to run low and the memory card filled up. I decided to call it a morning and head for home.

As usual you can find all of my pictures on my Picasa page, the pictures for this blog are in Digiscoping Set 14.

http://picasaweb.google.com/richwiz34

I’d like to thank all of the kind folks on the PA Birds mailing list, if it wasn’t for them I wouldn’t have known the Atlantic Brant was so close to home.

Crawford County 11-11-2008

2009-01-16T19:49:00.010-05:00

After an early morning, nearly 2 hour drive, I arrived at the spillway at Pymatuning Lake in Crawford County, PA. I had heard that the waterfowl migration was getting into full swing and some Eastern Golden Eagles were spotted in this area so I decided to take the day off of work and head north. I borrowed from the store where I work a Nikon Monarch Gold 1200 Laser Rangefinder for today’s trip. I figured to squeeze in a little field testing while I was out.

At dawn on the spillway I spotted several species but had few good photo opportunities. Among the waterfowl sited were a flock of over 300 Common and Red Breasted Mergansers, 40 Double Crested Cormorants as well as Ring-Billed and Herring Gulls. The best pictures that I got at this location were of an immature Herring Gull. This guy was perched on a rock on the down-stream side of the spillway and according to the rangefinder was 71 yards away.

A peninsula of land that sticks out into the game propagation area near the spillway is called Ford Island. On the north side of this peninsula I saw a flock of over 300 Mergansers, mainly hooded but with a handful of Red-Breasted thrown in for good measure. The Hooded Mergansers were doing a lot of courting displays for the females in the area. Since these critters were doing a lot of bouncing around on the water I chose to video instead of taking still pictures of them. The camera that I use has a respectable video feature that works well through the scope.

Hooded Merganser video #1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vj8toZQxmhI

Video #2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnUqy1lAS9Y

Video #3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXYG3-uVNH8

From the spillway I made my way to a place called Miller Ponds which is the site of one of the maintenance garages for state park. In a field just east of the buildings are a few ponds that usually contain waterfowl. As soon as I got out of the truck, the first thing that I spotted was one of the Golden Eagles. This eagle was in a tree about half way through the field. Unfortunately he took off before I could get the camera set up. I did some glassing to see what was around and spotted a second Golden Eagle on the far side of the field from me. He was just perched on a limb of a tree on the edge of the field. I had plenty of time to take many pictures of him and even switch lenses from the 24x to the 40x to attempt some higher zoom shots. I checked the rangefinder and found that the eagle was 474.5 yards from me. Ya gotta love Nikon accuracy.

Swimming in the other ponds were 12 Black Ducks, 2 Pied Bill Grebes and 14 Green Wing Teal as well as the usual Canada Geese. The Black Ducks were the first I’ve seen in PA and I was quite happy about that too. The only problem was that they were more worried about feeding than posing for pictures. I still made an effort to photograph them and checked the distance with the rangefinder which varied from 277-285 yards (they were moving). As I was packing up the truck I heard an odd sound, it’s tough to describe: It wasn’t a goose honk or a duck quack; maybe more like a whistling honk. I had and idea what it was and crouched down beside a large tree to see if I was right. I was right; it was a flock of Tundra Swans!!!! I had plenty of time to count them as they flew over at tree-top height; this was a flight of 48 swans. In addition to their calling I also heard another magical sound, one that can’t be appreciated until you hear it. I heard the whistling of their wings as they flew over. You won’t hear it with single birds or small birds when in large flocks but you will hear it in large flocks of larger birds. The whistle is created as air flows over and through the wings of the birds. This is another of the magical sounds of nature, like the bugle of a bull elk, the cry of a coyote or the grunt of a whitetail. I was having a great day.

After I left Miller Ponds, I made my way to Conneaut Lake, Conneaut swamp and Cambridge Springs but unfortunately found no waterfowl of note. I did see the usual Mallards and Canada Geese though.

My next stop was Woodcock Creek Lake outside of Meadville, PA. I was here in the spring of this year and got my first shots of Double Crested Cormorants. Today however I was in for a much bigger surprise: well over 300 Tundra Swans!!! I was able to park on the causeway of the lake and leisurely take as many pictures as I wanted. The majority of the swans were right on the water’s edge in front of me but because the water was down at least 6 feet below normal this still put them 154-174(from nearest to farthest) yards away from me for the most part. I was amazed at the numbers right in front of me and even tried to take a couple of panorama pictures but because of the swans swimming around they didn’t come out well at all. I nearly filled up my memory card with these swans, before I did though I spotted a small sparrow in a tree about 12 yards away from me. It seemed as if he was just sitting there watching me. So, of course I had to take some shots of him to fill up the card and kill my first camera battery. After I installed a new memory card and fresh battery I decided to move on, I still had a few stops to make and it was after 12 pm already.

The last stop for the day was the Geneva Swamp at Custards. Here I found two goose hunters getting ready to head out for the afternoon. I spent some time talking to them, the younger of the two expressed considerable interest in digiscoping. I gave him all of the information he wanted and warned him of the addiction it causes. While we were talking I was also taking pictures of the 150 Tundra Swans that were here in the swamp with about 40 Canada Geese, ranged at a distance of 178.5 yards. As we talked, we also saw two more flights of Tundra Swans pass overhead. The first flight had 75 swans in it and the second had 86.

What a day I had: 10 different species spotted; 500+ Tundra Swans; a good bit of field testing on a rangefinder (it’s outstanding by the way). I needed this trip more than you know.

The balance of the pictures from this trip can be found in my Picasa album number 14.

http://picasaweb.google.com/richwiz34

Moraine State Park, November 1, 2008

2009-01-13T15:10:00.005-05:00

The weather for the day was expected to be a little chilly but sunny. I was off work from both jobs so I decided to wake up bright and early to head to Moraine State Park. With the digiscoping equipment and a fishing rod in the back of the truck I was on my way.

I arrived at the waterfowl viewing platform near the Old 422 boat launch site about 15 minutes before sunrise. I had heard reports of a lone Tundra Swan being in the area the last few days and I held hopes that he was still around. I put together the digiscope and walked to the platform and what to my wondering eyes did appear??? Mr. Tundra Swan! He was mixed with a flock of maybe 70 Canada Geese, about 100 yards from the platform. I was able to get some pictures despite his need to constantly swim around. He stayed in the area for 20 minutes before flying off to find breakfast. With no suitable targets left here, I decided to check out a few new spots that I mapped out the evening before.

The first stop was the Route 528 boat launch. There wasn’t much to see here but I marked a waypoint on the GPS for future reference, this might be a good place to do some fishing next spring.

The second stop was the access area on Barkley Road, near the Mine Reclamation exhibit. This cove of the lake was very shallow with nothing to see. It might have some potential for the spring though.

The third stop was at the marinas along the North Shore. There was nothing of note at the Davis Hollow Marina but a little further on, at the Davis Hollow Public Launch was a collection of Ruddy Ducks and a Great Blue Heron.

The fourth and final stop for the day was at a little, secluded cove I found last spring. I was expecting some waterfowl to be in this area but I was wrong. Instead of digiscoping I grabbed the fishing rod and made a few casts. I was shortly reeling in a 1 ½ pound, 16 inch Largemouth Bass. It might not sound like a monster but on ultra light tackle it was a blast.

North Park, October 26, 2008

2009-01-13T15:03:00.003-05:00

The morning dawned warm and clear at North Park and I was out and about looking for targets. There wasn’t very much moving about this morning but I did find something of interest at Marshall Lake in North Park, a Ruddy Duck.

If you’ve never seen one of these little rascals, and I do mean little, they are quite unique. Their tail feathers stand at about a 60 degree angle from their hind end. It’s almost like they have a spoiler on them. They are very small for a duck too, if I had to guess, they are close to half the size of a mallard.

There was only one Ruddy on the lake this morning along with the usual Mallards and Canada Geese. He wasn’t very exciting either, sleeping most of the time. But I got some pictures and crossed another species off of my list.

Elk County 2008

2008-11-03T18:38:00.017-05:00

So once again, Meet-In Pittsburgh invaded Elk County, Pa for a weekend of big critters and the outdoors. This year, everyone knew how to get to the lodge and all arrived before nightfall. Frank, Gerry, Jack, Pete, Tony, Joe, Kari and her daughters (Bridgette and Lynnette) joined me for a weekend at Medix Run Lodges. We’d been planning this since early last spring and everyone was ready to get away.

Thursday evening I brought out one of the toys that I borrowed for field testing, a night vision scope. Overall, it worked rather well, Bridgette and Lynnette loved it. We used it to see more stars than you could imagine. The evening was wrapped up with a few drinks and conversation around the campfire.

Friday morning some of us were up bright and early to go find some elk. The caravan included Kari, the girls and Tony in Kari’s van plus Gerry and Jack in my truck. It wasn’t long before we found the elk either. There was a small herd of 11 right on Route 555 about 5 miles from the camp. The herd was split onto both sides of the road enjoying a morning meal.. The herd bull was on the southern side of the road about 40 yards away with 6 cows and 4 cows were on the northern side of the road. As I got out of the truck I heard one of the northern cows calling and I got an idea. I grabbed my Primos “Lead Cow and Calf” call and went to work. After 2 or 3 mating calls the herd bull turned toward us and loudly bugled. What a way to start the morning!!! If you’ve never heard an elk bugle it’s one of the most haunting and mysterious sounds in the woods.. After hearing that I grabbed my Primos Terminator Bugle call and imitated his bugle to make him think that there was another bull in the area. The herd bull bugled again so I came back with a few more cow calls. This really got the herd bull going; he bugled several more times and then started visiting each cow to see if she was the one making the mating calls. He eventually worked his way towards us and the four cows on the northern side of the road. At one point the bull was maybe 10 yards from us. Everyone, especially the girls couldn’t believe the experience. I can still see the look in Bridgette’s eyes after the first bugle; they were as big as saucers!

We continued on our way that morning and drove to the top of Winslow Hill which is the most popular place for elk viewing in the area. The fog was very heavy on top of the mountain so we couldn’t see much. We were lucky enough to find a group of three bulls though, two of which were sparring with each other. One was a large, probably former herd bull and the other was a younger bull just beginning to feel his oats. We couldn’t see much because they were just inside some brush but you could hear them and at times make out what was going on. I think that the larger bull was just toying with the youngster; he was much larger in the body and had more than twice the amount of antler mass. After watching them for a short time we all agreed that it was time for breakfast so we set a course for the lodge.

After breakfast, most of the crew(Frank, Jack, Gerry, Tony, Pete, Joe and Lynnette) decided that it was time for a hike. As everyone got ready, I double checked my photography equipment. I had a list of places to find to determine if they would be suitable viewing areas for later in the trip and the future. I promised the crew that I would get them to the trailhead for the Fred Woods Trail which isn’t regarded as a very difficult trail but promised plenty of rock formations and overlooks. Before leading them to the trailhead I took everyone to an overlook that I found earlier this year. This overlook offers stunning views of the surrounding country; everywhere that you look all that you see is mountains. While we were at this overlook we were treated to an incredible fly-by of an Air Force C-17 cargo plane. The plane must have been practicing low-level terrain following as it disappeared into a valley north of the overlook then soon roared back up above the mountains.

I dropped off the hiking crew, made sure that most of them had some sort of fluorescent orange on for safety then I went on my own way. I didn’t have much luck with what I wanted to do but I did get to do some off-roading in my truck. Frank, Gerry, Pete and Jack had the good fortune to see a large black bear after they finished the hike! After being nearly three miles into the forest, they saw the bear right near an intersection with Route 555. Judging by their pictures, it appears to be about a 300+ pound bear. While I was on my little adventure I eventually ran into Kari and Bridgette who went to meet Kari’s sister and parents who decided to come to Elk Co. for the day. I took them to a few spots and they joined me in my luckless quest for new viewing areas for a while.

Late Friday afternoon, Pete, Lynnette and I again went looking for elk. This time we found them in a field on Winslow Hill. The first herd was made up of 14 cows and a herd bull. We got a lot of pictures of this herd and I was able to get some great shots of the herd bull as he was resting near the edge of the field. On our next stop a short distance away, we found two more groups of elk. The first herd had 11 cows and a herd bull, the second group was a bachelor bull group of three: Two spike bulls and a raghorn (small, multi-point) bull. These were quite a distance from us and I was the only one able to get pictures of them, unfortunately the pictures were too blurred for my tastes. From this same area, I spotted another herd to the east of us. Because the herd was on the move, we jumped into the truck and quickly drove to the vicinity of the herd. In a matter of a few minutes, we were out of the truck trying to spot the herd but we were too late. The herd disappeared into the woods already, when I first saw this herd I was able to make out through my binoculars two bulls sparring and eight cows. We moved on further down Winslow Hill and found two more smaller bulls bedded in another field. I believe that these were two of the bulls that we saw in the same area that morning but because I never clearly saw them I couldn’t be sure. What an evening of critter viewing the three of us had!! In a little over two hours we saw 42 elk; that was more than we saw in three days last year! The total for the day had risen to 56.

Friday evening we all relaxed around the campfire, told a story or two, had some ‘smores and planned for the next day.

Saturday morning dawned crisp and much clearer than Friday, there was a light fog in the valley and the mountain tops were clear. Frank, Tony and I decided to venture out in search of more elk. We were driving along Route 555 when Tony spotted our first elk of the day. It was a rather large bull that had probably lost his harem to another bull. He was walking through a campground and never stopped long enough to provide us with a chance of clear pictures. We drove towards Benezette to check out a couple of places that we saw elk last year. Those places brought us no elk but as we were returning to the Benezette area we found four elk right beside the road at an intersection. This small group was made up of a large bull and three cows. Frank and Tony were able to lean out the windows of my truck and take pictures since the elk were maybe 20 feet from us. From this quick stop we drove up onto Winslow Hill again, at the first viewing area, we saw some elk to the east of us in the same field that I spotted the third herd from the night before. We quickly went there and saw another 8 cows and a herd bull. They didn’t stay around for long though, maybe 10 minutes and they disappeared into the woods. Our next stop was at the main viewing area on Winslow Hill. There were no elk visible in the immediate area but through my binoculars I spotted movement in a field at least a half mile away. Through the spotting scope I was able to make out 4 cows in a field. From the main viewing area, we made our way back to the lodge. While we were driving up Grant Hill Road we saw a few cars pulled over so we got out to take a look at what was going on. There in a small clearing near the driveway of a camp was another herd of 10 elk, 9 cows and a herd bull. Frank and Tony did their best to get pictures while I used my calls to try to get the bull to bugle. Another 24 elk added to our total for the weekend.

After breakfast, everyone got ready for the balance of the day. All of the folks at the lodge except for me were meeting some other Meet-In folks at the Straub Brewery in St. Mary’s then heading to Dubois for lunch. That was covered here previously. I spent the rest of my day exploring new territory. There is so much forest in this area that you could spend years getting to know it all, that’s what I came to Elk County for in the first place.

I started by following a road that turns off of Route 555 near Weedville. According to my maps, this should take me deep into the Moshannon State Forest. http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/forestry/stateforests/moshannon.aspx
I made my way on this road which eventually climbed about 15-1800 feet above the valley. As the road leveled off again I came to an area that was clearcut of trees about two years ago. This area was maybe 5 acres in size with a lot of brush and cut logs lying around. I decided to park the truck and explore a little. I grabbed the camera and GPS and made my way through the clearcut. I saw nothing exciting until I was back at the truck getting ready to move on; I was just looking around when I saw a melanistic chipmunk run across a log. This guy wasn’t a full albino because he had black ears and 2 black stripes on his tail; the rest of his body was white. I checked out my map book and saw that I was about 10 miles from the Quehanna Wild Area. The Quehanna Wild Area is a 48,000 acre area that is considered the most unpopulated part of the state. http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/forestry/oldgrowth/quehanna.aspx
Michelle and I spent a little bit of time in the Quehanna Wild Area last year and I fell in love with it. I got to the Marian Brooks Natural Area which at this time of the year is something to see. The fall colors on the white birch trees were just incredible.
http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/forestry/stateforests/moshactivities.aspx
While in the Marion Brooks area I found a 4WD trail and made my way into the forest. As I was driving down the trail, I saw something slither across the path in front of the truck. I knew it was a snake but I couldn’t swerve, I just hoped that he saw the tires and stopped until I was past. I continued down the trail and found a small mud hole that I just had to play in. There was no resisting this urge for me; I shifted into 4WD-Low and hit the gas. The mud was only about 6 inches deep but I was laughing to beat the band. I had rooster tails of mud flying from all four tires. The mud was really thin though so not much of it stuck to the truck.

I finished playing in the mud and made my way back down the same trail that I came in on before. When I got to where I saw the snake I realized that he didn’t wait for me to pass. I got out of the truck to check him out and saw that it was no ordinary snake, it was a Timber Rattlesnake around 30” long!!!! I’d never seen a rattler in the woods before. I picked him up with a stick and threw him into the woods. He was dead so I knew there was no chance of harm. As I was coming to the end of the trail and getting ready to turn back onto the Quehanna Highway I said to myself “I should have taken a picture of that snake”, I was already a few miles from it. Shortly after that I realized that I should have cut the rattles off too. Oh well, an opportunity missed is an opportunity lost. I continued on to explore some of the Dent’s Run valley and returned to the old stomping grounds of the Hicks Run valley. By this time it was coming close to 4 PM so I decided it was time to head back to the lodge to find something for dinner.

Shortly after I returned to the lodge, the rest of the crew showed up as well. Kari and her daughters had an obligation on Sunday so they went home after finishing lunch at the restaurant. Saturday evening turned into a night of a little alcohol fueled mayhem. Before I got too much alcohol into me I asked if anyone was interested in going back to the overlook that we were at on Friday. Gerry, Frank and Jack all agreed that it would be something to see at night. They were all a little ahead of my with the alcohol so I said that I would drive, I’d had maybe two drinks, I was safe. A little over 30 minutes later we were at the overlook. This was something to see, even with a half moon in the sky. Using the night vision we were able to pick out a vast number of stars. Frank, Gerry and Jack decided to take a little hike out to the edge of the overlook, which is just under a mile from the truck. I was content to stay where I was and look at the stars. The three amigos eventually made their way back to the truck and we started off towards the lodge. I took them down the road I found in April. At that time I gave this road a “Pucker Factor” of 8.5 due to the mud and rain, this time it wasn’t as bad but my passengers were still impressed that as they looked out the window to the left they were looking at the tops of trees that were less than 100 feet away. Yes, the cliff was that sharp and no, there weren’t any guard rails.

When we got back to Route 555 we faced a 30 minute ride back to the lodge, Frank handed me a CD and said “Put this in, Gerry will love it.” In second Gerry was going nuts, the CD was Lords of Acid. I had never heard this before and I found it uuummmm…..interesting. This is coming from a true, confessed country boy and redneck. I was actually getting into the songs but in the back of my head I was singing the Dukes of Hazard theme song. We were going to be on a dirt road soon and I was gonna show these three amigos a little good ol’ boy thrill. When we got to Grant Hill Road, which leads to the cabin, I said “I’m going for a new hill climb record on this road, hold on!” Now Grant Hill Road is steep, winding and dirt after the first quarter of a mile. I hit 45 mph on the climb. That may not sound like much but if you knew this road you’d be impressed. Gerry and Frank were suddenly quiet in the back seat, bracing themselves against the front seats; Jack was white knuckled on the two grab handles in the passenger seat. I was laughing and singing…”Just a good ol’ boy….never meaning no harm…” We got back to the lodge and the three amigos all said the hill climb was great, please don’t do it again. I said shoot, in my younger days I’d have hit at least 60. I did a lot of dirt road driving years ago and I’m a little rusty now.

After we got back to the cabin things got a little crazy. Gerry decided to dance with a stuffed bear, I was imitating Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin and Jack was egging us both on. Someone mentioned that Gerry always wanted to ride the lazy susan on the kitchen table, that wasn’t good for her though. We thought that she was going to turn a little green.

Sunday morning it was time to clean up and get ready to head for home. In what seemed like no time at all, our Elk County trip for the year was over.

There were some low points to the trip as well. Friday morning the well ran dry and we had no water in the lodge. We were somewhat upset about that but there were other cabins that were part of Medix Run Lodges and there were two bathhouses located there which was just a short trip down the mountain. Luckily we had a few cases of bottled water for drinking. I also ran into some rude people through the day on Saturday. Whether they were locals sick of the tourists or tourists themselves I can’t say. That was the first time in a long while that I ran into rudeness like that in Elk County or anywhere else outside of the city. Normally folks are very friendly.

All in all, it was another great trip and as far as I know, a good time was had by everyone. We’ve already talked about doing it again next year but we’ll consider a different lodge, this is the second year in a row that we ran out of water.

I’m ready to go back right now.

As usual, you can view all of my digiscope pictures at
http://picasaweb.google.com/richwiz34

I'm still alive!!!!

2008-10-21T19:38:00.002-04:00

Well it's been a few months since I've posted something and I'm still here, I'm still alive.

I've had a long, busy summer, working lots of hours and getting out very little. Hopefully that will be changing for me soon even though I have the busy time at the store coming very soon.

Coming soon, you can expect to see a blog about my annual trip to Elk County, PA and of course more blogs about my quest to photograph each species of waterfowl that travels through or nests in Pennsylvania. So stay tuned, there will be more adventures soon.

Harmarville and North Park, May 4, 2008

2008-06-15T19:49:00.005-04:00

Dave, one of the characters that I work with at the store, told me of a Green Wing Teal that he had been seeing in Harmarville, PA. I was familiar with the area which is less than 20 minutes from my house and we were due for some rain around 10 am so I got to Harmarville around 6:45am to look for this teal.

This part of Harmarville has a small marsh or wetlands area behind a shopping plaza. I parked the truck a short distance away from where he told me to look for this teal, set up my equipment and walked to where this teal was supposed to be living. I got to the general area and sure enough there he was feeding n the grass on the edge of the water. His spring mating colors were stunning. I just took my time and kept snapping pictures of him. At one point I was a little less than 25 yards away which is outstanding for this species. These little ducks are usually very skittish, before today the closest I have been was about 80 yards.

I was so busy concentrating on the teal that I didn’t notice the other ducks milling about in the grass and gravel at the edge of the marsh. A pair of mallards brought their newly hatched young out to eat. I swung the digiscope in their direction and got some good shots of these youngsters.

About 10 minutes after the mallard family showed up a pair of Canada geese brought their new goslings out as well. The goslings seemed to take over where the ducklings were. The ducklings didn’t like this so they went running to mom. Mom mallard was sitting on the ground enjoying her time away from the kids until they came running to her for protection from the goose bullies. Mom mallard patiently stood up and all of the ducklings hid under her. I was laughing out loud while watching this go on.

I turned back to the teal and saw that he was joined by a Wood Duck drake. These two guys were bouncing all over the place and it was nearly impossible to get shots of them standing still.

The teal, wood duck, mallard and goose families soon made their way back to the marsh and I decided to make a run to North Park to see what was there. I got to Marshall Lake at North Park about 30 minutes later to find that the county had blocked access to the footbridge to the island. I guessed that this was to protect the three pairs of nesting geese that took up temporary residence there. Thunder rumbled in the distance so I decided that it was time to go home.

North Park, April 26, 2008

2008-06-15T19:22:00.011-04:00

It’s springtime now and I have a lot of responsibilities pulling me in different directions; because of that it’s been almost two weeks since my last outing. Once again this morning I was limited on time. Today I had to meet my sister so that I could do some work on her computer therefore I had about 3 hours to digiscope this morning.

I decided to hit North Park again. This time of the year is the middle of the song bird migration and the start of the mating season for those that nest in this area. Because of this activity, I figured that North Park would give me the best opportunities in the amount of time that I had.

I pulled into the parking area at Marshall Lake just after sunrise. While I was setting up the digiscope I saw that there were swallows flying all over the surface of the lake, they were catching an early morning hatch of mosquitoes. I stopped on the road side of the footbridge to the island to watch. I noticed that the swallows would buzz around the lake for a while then stop to rest of the railings of the footbridge. I decided to just wait for them to come to me.

While I was waiting for the swallows to rest on the bridge railings I was able to get a few shots of a pair of Grackles at the top of a tree on the island and also pictures of a Yellow Warbler in another tree.

The swallows finally came to rest on the bridge railings. I was able to get a multitude of pictures of these little birds. I was excited because these birds rarely stop for a rest like this.

After shooting the swallows I made my way across the bridge to the island. Halfway across the bridge I noticed that a goose was sitting on a nest on the island near the bridge landing. This could very well be the same goose on the same nest that I got pictures of last year. I got some great pictures then so I snapped another handful for this year.

I finally finished crossing the bridge to the island. On the far side of the island is a fallen tree that I like to call “The Perch”. Birds will fly from all around the lake to perch and call from this tree. I’ve gotten more pictures of more species of birds on this tree than I have anywhere else I have been and this morning was no different. When I first got to that side of the island a Red-Winged Black Bird was calling his heart out from one of the top branches of “The Perch”.

As I was watching for activity on The Perch a wood duck swam from the feeder stream at the North end of the lake to the nest boxes across the lake from me. You just know that I had to snap some pictures of this guy too.

As I saw when I first arrived this morning, the swallows were still buzzing the surface of the lake. I couldn’t see the footbridge from where I was so I can’t be sure if they were still stopping to rest there or not. They were however landing on The Perch. I was lucky enough to get good pictures of both Tree and Rough-Winged swallows as they rested on the limbs of the dead tree.

It was a good morning and it was getting close to the sister-meeting time. I decided to call it quits for the day and move on to other chores.

North Park, April 13, 2008

2008-05-30T14:08:00.011-04:00

It has been 10 days since my last outing and I really needed a break. It’s been raining in my area just about every day for the last week. I checked the forecast the night before and saw that I’d have a 2-3 hour window to try for pictures this morning.

I arrived at Marshall Lake at North Park about 30 minutes after sunrise. I parked the truck and proceeded to get my gear ready. I looked across the lake and saw a Wood Duck drake perched atop one of the nest boxes in place there.

I made my way to the island across the foot bridge and happily saw that the woodie was still there. I started snapping pictures of him. My loyal reader already knows how I feel about Wood Ducks, I think they are the most beautiful duck to visit and reside in Pennsylvania. After about 75 pictures of the woodie I felt that it was time to search for new targets. The way that the woodie was acting I expected him to be there for quite a while yet.

The first new target that I saw was a Red-Winged Black Bird that was perched in a nearby tree. He was happily greeting the morning with his song. Yes, that picture really is a Red-Winged Black Bird. It is uneditted except for cropping to size.

A second new target was a grackle that was calling from a pine tree on the island. The light was hitting him perfectly so that his head was glowing a brilliant iridescent blue.

When I first walked onto the island this morning there was a Canada goose in the water just a few feet away from me. The goose just stayed there and watched me for most of the last hour. It seemed to me as if he was fascinated by me and my actions. So, to keep him from being insulted and needing goose counseling for my neglect of him I snapped a few pictures. Sure enough, after he saw me focus on him for a few minutes he swam away.

While I was helping the goose with his identity crisis I saw that the wood duck drake was still on the nest box. The sun had risen further into the sky by now and was casting some excellent light directly onto the woodie. I had a rare opportunity to get pictures of a woodie in the same position but under different lighting conditions in the same day. Woodies are normally just too skittish for that to happen too often.

After shooting another 50 pictures of the woodie I saw that it was time to go home; I still had a lot of work to get done there. It wasn’t my best morning of digiscoping this year but any day spent enjoying nature is a good day.

Day Three “Up North” – The Journey Home, April 3, 2008

2008-05-12T14:00:00.007-04:00

Today would be the last day of this trip, I had to be back to work at both jobs tomorrow. I decided to pack-up and leave camp early so that I could stop at Moraine State Park/Lake Arthur on the way home. I set the alarm for 4:30 AM so that I could be packed up and on the road by 6 AM. My plan worked, I was on I-79 south by 5:50 in the morning and made it to the boat launch at old Route 422 on Lake Arthur by 6:45.

I previously wrote about the wildlife viewing area near this boat launch. From this little platform I was able to see and get shots of buffleheads and wood ducks. Some of the woodie pictures are really outstanding if I do say so myself. I used up the remaining space on the 2GB memory card that I started yesterday. It was time to move to the next spot for the morning.

I drove to the South Shore Recreation area and saw some ducks in the end of the cove. I parked the truck and checked out the ducks, they were Mallards so I passed on the pictures. I also saw a Red Winged Black Bird perched upon a sign near the edge of the water. I set up the digiscope and got some pictures of this guy as he was doing his spring mating calls.

After the Red Winged Black Bird flew off I caught some movement near the shore across the cove. This turned out to be a handful of Hooded Mergansers, unfortunately they were too far away to get any decent pictures.

I moved again, this time to the point of land where this cove meets the main lake. Out on the main lake, maybe 150 yards away, I spotted a Common Loon. I was ecstatic!!!! I had never seen one of these birds before and wanted to take full advantage of this opportunity. Luckily, the loon cooperated with me.

The entire time that I was shooting the loon there was a song sparrow singing away in a tree about 12 yards away from me. After I took about 50 shots of the loon I swung the digiscope towards the song sparrow. It was almost as if he was singing and posing just to get his picture taken.

My next stop would be the boat launch at McDaniel’s Road. I had stopped here before when the lake was frozen and the area showed some potential. I wasn’t even in the parking lot when I saw two osprey in a nest across the cove from me. I parked the truck and walked to the lake shore with the digiscope in hand. The osprey nest was about 150 yards away but the light wasn’t perfect so the pictures weren’t as good as those that I got yesterday.

I left the ospreys and walked to another small cove because I heard wood ducks calling from that direction. I just can’t pass up a chance at pictures of wood ducks in their mating plumage which they are in now. They have the most vibrant mix of colors of all of the waterfowl that visit PA. Try as I might I just couldn’t find the woodies that were doing the calling though.

While I was looking for the woodies, I heard a Blue Jay calling repeatedly. I looked around and saw the blue jay perched at the top of a tree nearby. I swung the digiscope around and started snapping pictures. I’ve seen blue jays quite often but I’ve rarely had a chance to get good pictures, here was my opportunity.

When the Blue Jay flew away I decided to pack up and move to the North Shore of Lake Arthur. I checked a few of my spots and found nothing. I stopped at one of the points overlooking the lake. As I was getting out of the truck I spooked two wild turkeys that were no more than 25 yards away from me; I never saw them before they spooked. These were two long-bearded gobblers and this was the start of the mating season so I used my turkey call to try and bring them back. Although they were gobbling in answer to each of my calls they wouldn’t come into the open for pictures.

After a few minutes I decided that the turkeys didn’t want to be sociable so I scanned the lake with my binoculars. In the water just off the point that I was on I saw a group of four Double-Crested Cormorants. I set up for some pictures and was able to get several before they went out of range. These pictures aren’t as good as those from yesterday but for a rare bird for this area I’ll take them.

After the cormorants were out of range I decided to pack up and head home. I had only 75 pictures remaining on my last memory card anyway. I also wanted to download the pictures to my computer at home to see what I captured over the last few days.

I was slowly driving down one of the back roads on the North Shore when about 150 feet in front of me something very tall and hairy walked across the road on two legs. This thing walked just like the Bigfoot in the famous footage from the 60’s. It crossed a 20 foot wide road in three steps!! I said to myself “Holy Sh*t it’s Bigfoot!!!!!” The camera was packed in its case so I couldn’t get pictures. This creature knelt beside the road with its back to the road. I pulled my XD-40 from its holster and said to myself “If this sumbitch really is Bigfoot I’m gonna give my taxidermist a heart attack.” I wound down the window and slowly drove towards the creature.

I was maybe 50 feet or less from it when I saw that its body wasn’t covered in fur but in canvas. I got a little closer and was able to make out the faded lettering on its back that read “PA Parks and Recreation Maintenance”. It was a maintenance guy with long dark hair and a long beard both the same color as his suit!!!

I pulled up to him and said “I thought that you were Bigfoot.”

His answer was “People say that all of the time. I saw you down on the point and I figured that I’d play a trick on you.”

I replied “You played a trick alright, you were almost on your way to the taxidermist.”

We both had a good laugh about the encounter and I went on my way. After 2 ½ days I drove some 600 miles and took more than 1700 pictures. I saw and photographed 20 species of waterfowl and birds as well as white-tailed deer, elk and turtles. It was an outstanding trip.

Day 2 “Up North” – April 2, 2008

2008-05-12T12:54:00.016-04:00

Since I was staying in the area I could sleep an extra hour and still be at my first stop for the morning before sunrise. That was my plan anyway. The sun was supposed to rise around 7 AM; I would set the alarm for 5 AM so I would have an hour to get everything ready and be on my way by 6 AM. Like I said, that was my plan. However my mind wouldn’t let that happen, I was wide awake at 4:30.

I made it to Erie National Wildlife Refuge in Crawford County at 6:40 and in the twilight of early morning I was able to make out Canada Geese on some of the ponds that I drove past. I knew that I would have better opportunities before the day was through so I didn’t bother to shoot those geese. At the Erie National Wildlife Refuge there are lakes and ponds scattered throughout the area, some along roads and others accessible only by hiking to them. I decided to drive past the ponds visible from the roads and if I didn’t see anything worth shooting I would hike to some of the other ponds.

I was driving past one of the ponds and saw a small flock of nearly 20 Ringneck Ducks; it was time for some pictures. The wind was still blowing quite hard from the storm last night; the temperature was in the mid 30’s but the wind made it feel like the high teens. It wasn’t a very comfortable first stop for pictures. While I was shooting the ringnecks, I noticed something among a flock of geese at the far end of the pond. I continued to get shots of the ringnecks as the new creature worked its way closer to me. Eventually he was close enough so I swung the digiscope in his direction. It was a diving duck but I hadn’t positively ID’ed him yet. I got into his rhythm as I do with all divers that I shoot and was shortly getting acceptable pictures. This little guy turned out to be a Pied-Bill Grebe! I had only seen one of these before and was unable to get pictures of him. Getting the pictures of this Grebe made passing up the photo opportunities earlier worth while. It was time to leave Erie National Wildlife Refuge. You could spend days there and not see everything but I had other places to get to today.

Woodcock Creek Lake is a small recreational lake near Meadville, PA. I had no idea what to expect to see when I got there. I pulled into a parking area on the east end of the lake and before the truck even came to a stop I saw more new-to-me species. These were all black, long necked birds a little smaller than geese. I found out later that they were Double Crested Cormorants. I had never seen this species of bird before and enjoyed the time that I spent photographing them, The stayed in range for more than 30 minutes so after my initial rush to get pictures I could settle down to pick and choose which shots I wanted.

After more than 50 pictures of the cormorants I packed up the truck for the drive to my next spot. I was crossing the causeway on Woodcock Creek Lake when I looked to the west and saw some Buffleheads less than 50 yards from the base of the causeway. I immediately pulled over and grabbed the digiscope. I’ve rarely had chances with this species this close to me. I was able to get 25 shots before the birds were out of range again. Now it was time to go to Cambridge Springs.

Cambridge Springs is a small village nestled along French Creek in Northern Crawford County. Just outside of town is a Pennsylvania Game Commission Game Lands/Wetlands area and this is where I was going.

My first stop in Cambridge Springs was a boat launch/picnic area on French Creek. As I was pulling into the parking area I saw eight Wood Ducks in a small marshy area near the side of the road. I parked the truck as quietly as possible and grabbed the digiscope. I was dressed in full Realtree Hardwoods APG camo as usual. I slowly crawled about 25 yards closer to the wood ducks but they were still spooked by my initial arrival. I made some greeting and feeding calls on my duck call but the woodies weren’t buying any of it. I tried a few more calls but had no luck with the woodies. Less than a minute after I finished with the last calls I heard a splash behind me. It seems that although the calls didn’t work with the woodies I did manage to call in 3 drake mallards. I laughed to myself for a few minutes about the mallards showing up like that. I was able to see the woodies the entire time but I wasn’t able to get them into a decent picture. The drakes were at the back of the marshy area and the hens were in trees.

My next stop was about ¾ of a mile down the road. This spot is a pond set up by the PA Game Commission as a feeding and resting place for migrating waterfowl. There is an access road/trail beside the pond with brush on the pond shoreline. This brush would provide cover for me to make my way along the pond without spooking any of the waterfowl.

I parked the truck across the road from the pond. I got my equipment ready and prepared to cross the road and walk along the pond. Just before I crossed the road, a guy on a LOUD Harley rode past. As he did a mixed flock of Blue-Wing and Green-Wing Teal flew away from the near end of the pond. It figures, two new-to-me species that I could have gotten great pictures of disappear because of a bonehead that thinks his obnoxious bike is cool. Don’t get me wrong, I like Harley’s but you don’t need to have the exhaust earsplitting loud.

Anyway I crossed the road and soon found a break in the brush alongside the pond. I used the Tetons to find that there was a nice mix of waterfowl still on the pond including Canada Geese, Mallards, Blue Wing Teal, Green Wing Teal, Northern Shovellers, Wood Ducks and Mergansers that weren’t spooked by Harley Boy. I continued walking along the access road until I came to the end of the brush. From this point I was able to set up and get some good pictures but not as many as I had hoped to get. Most of the ducks were on the far side of the pond which was 250 yards away. I couldn’t go on that side of the pond because it was privately owned and posted against trespassing. I filled the memory card that was started yesterday and drained the battery before walking back to the truck.

On my walk back to the truck I ran into some local folks that were just out for a walk. They told me of another place west of Cambridge Springs to try for waterfowl. (I did go there but there was nothing to be seen).

When I got back to the parking area I saw a guy in a pick up truck watching the waterfowl; I waved as I walked past and went to my truck. I had the battery changed and was in the process of changing the memory card when the guy from the truck walked over and introduced himself. I put the camera case in the truck, sat the full memory card case on the roof(remember this) and shook hands with the guy. We spent about 20 minutes talking about digiscoping, waterfowl and elk. It turned out that he is an elk hunting guide in Idaho every fall. I’ve met several people that work/live in this area most of the year but work as guides during the hunting season out west. Well we finished our conversation; he drove off as I was putting the digiscope and tripod into the truck.

I had hoped to get lunch at the Wooden Nickel Buffalo Farm and Restaurant in Edinboro but they were closed. Apparently they changed their hours. I did see plenty of buffalo at the farm but I didn’t bother taking any pictures of them.

I made my way to Pymatuning, making some of the stops that I did yesterday. The ponds that I stopped at yesterday still held nothing of spectacular so I proceeded to the spillway and nature center. I walked a trail from the nature center towards the closed part of the lake. While on this walk I was able to get pictures of a small group of Buffleheads. The excitement didn’t really pick up until I walked through the remainder of the loop trail to the far side of the nature center. I found an older man sitting on a bench with a spotting scope set up in front of him. He told me that he was there waiting for the eagles. It wasn’t long before we spotted one flying almost directly overhead of us. I turned the digiscope in the direction he was flying, just in case. I continued to watch the eagle soar out over the lake and back again until he landed in a tree about 800 yards away. I had the digiscope on him in a matter of seconds. The camera was satisfied with the focus so I started snapping pictures. Unfortunately the eagle was just too far away for the pictures to be clear. I didn’t realize this until I was home and viewed the pictures on the computer.

While I was busy watching the eagle I failed to notice the small flock of Bluebirds flying around the area. Again I quickly moved the digiscope and was able to get a few good shots of these birds.

It was now early afternoon so I decided to make my way back towards Lake Wilhelm; I wanted to try for the eagles and osprey there too. My first stop was where I got the osprey pictures yesterday. I was able to check the nest from the road but the birds weren’t there.

My next stop was an access area below the bridge that I was just on. I was told by a local that from this access area you can just make out the active bald eagle nest. I couldn’t find the nest but I was able to see an immature bald eagle perched above the water some 500 yards away. Again the distance was too great, even for the 40x eyepiece, for the pictures to be clear. I did however get some nice shots of Herring Gulls that were perched on a submerged log. I decided to drive back to camp before going to my next stop so that I could put a battery in the charger.

My next stop for the day was a small pond near the Lake Wilhelm marina. On my way to the camp I drove past this pond and saw some Ringneck Ducks. I parked the truck and didn’t even have my equipment out of it and set up before I saw a photo opportunity. There were Killdeer frolicking all over the parking lot of the marina. I got some shots of these hyperactive birds before starting my walk towards the pond. I was about half way to the pond when I noticed two Ospreys in a tree near the back of the pond. I immediately set up the digiscope and got some pictures in case they flew away before I got to the pond. After about 35 pictures I walked to the small observation deck on the pond. The ospreys were still there so I took another double handful of pictures before they flew off.

When the ospreys departed I busied myself taking pictures of the ringneck ducks in the pond. I was lucky enough to get some really good pictures of these ducks. Soon enough the ospreys returned and I was able to get great shots of these birds, almost at will, for nearly 45 minutes.

An older couple joined me on the deck and I explained to them how the digiscope worked. I went to the camera case in my pocket to get the memory card that I had switched out earlier in the morning and it wasn’t there!!!!! I double checked all of my pockets and still no memory card. I grabbed the digiscope and walked to the truck. I checked all through the truck and on the ground around it, no memory card. I went back to the camp and checked inside, no memory card. I ripped apart the truck again, no memory card. I was starting to panic, yes, really panic. That was a 2GB card, the card itself is easily replaced but the pictures on it would be next to impossible to get again. I went to the previous two stops that I made before I came back to camp the first time this afternoon and had no luck, the card wasn’t there. The last place that I knew that I had the card was Cambridge Springs, 40 miles North of where I was. It was nearly 5 pm now so I better get moving. A little over an hour later I pulled into the parking area at Cambridge Springs and saw my memory card lying on the ground next to where the truck was parked in the morning. I immediately tried the memory card, it was just fine, no damage and all of my pictures were still there. I suppose that I forgot to take the memory card off the roof of the truck before I pulled away this morning. I crossed the road to see if there were any waterfowl on the pond but it was empty. I turned the truck around and started the drive back to camp. I was done for the day. It was after 6 pm and I still had an hour to drive. I did have a truly outstanding day though so I was happy about that.

Day 1 “Up North”, April 1, 2008

2008-05-08T17:00:00.012-04:00

I left the house this morning at 3:50am. Since I had this time off from both jobs and had better directions to it, I wanted to find the trail head for a trail in Elk County. Last September my friend Michelle and I spent most of a day looking for this trail with no luck at all. I drove North on Route 28 to Interstate 80 then east on I-80 to the Route 255 exit. I followed Route 255 to the Route 555 split in Weedville, Elk County, PA. Route 555 is the main highway through the heart of the Pennsylvania Elk Country. It’s rather funny to call a 2-lane blacktop a main highway but when most of the other roads in the area are dirt that’s what you get.

What most people do not know is that Pennsylvania is home to one of the largest herds of wild elk (wapiti) east of the Mississippi river. The herd numbers close to 800 animals and covers an area of 3,750 square miles in Elk, Cameron, Clearfield, Clinton and Potter counties, otherwise known as the PA Wilds area. The last native Eastern elk in Pennsylvania was killed by a hunter in the middle 1800’s. The present herd is from stock brought in by sportsman and the PA Game Commission in the early 1900’s. If you are a Pennsylvania resident and have never been to this area to see the elk, make the trip, it’s worth the time.

I stopped at the 255/555 split to set up the digiscope so I would have it ready right away if I needed it. In this area you never know when you’ll see or get a chance to photograph wildlife. I drove east on Route 555 through Medix Run and onto Benezette, PA. I turned left onto Winslow Hill Road and started my way up the mountain towards the PA Game Commission/Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation viewing areas. I was barely started up the mountain when I saw my first elk of the day; 4 cows were in the yard of a church enjoying a salt lick. I didn’t get any pictures of these cows because I had no place to pull over. I didn’t want to get too close and spook them from the area either.

I continued my drive to the top of Winslow Hill, when I was almost on the plateau at the top I saw a lone elk in a field. He was walking into the woods at too great of a speed for me to make an attempt at pictures.

I continued to drive along Winslow Hill Road; I saw 5 elk already but I wanted more. I stopped at the first viewing area to see what was there. I saw nothing in the valley but as I looked around through the binoculars, way off in the distance, I saw seven more elk on the edge of a strip mine. Finally I was able to set-up for pictures. Sadly the herd never stopped moving so every picture was blurred. The distance could have been a factor as well; I estimated the herd to be close to 800 yards away from me.

I left that spot and moved on to the “Official” PA Game Commission/RMEF Winslow Hill viewing area. This was the first time that I was there that I had the place all to myself. It really didn’t matter though because I didn’t see any elk anyway. It was time to get back on the road and off of Winslow Hill. I drove off the mountain and followed Route 555 East to Hicks Run Road and to the camping area where I stayed during my first trip to Elk County. I saw no elk during the ride through the state forest but I did see 14 deer.

Finally it was time to find this trail head. As I was driving down Route 555 I almost ran over a Turkey Vulture. This guy must have been very hungry because I was able to get within a few feet of him with the truck before he flew away. As the turkey vulture was flying away I saw a bull elk cross the road about 200 yards east of me. I slowly drove closer to the spot where he crossed the road and saw two spike bulls and two raghorn bulls. A raghorn bull is a young, branch-antlered bull that hasn’t developed the size needed to defend a harem of cows. I snapped 40 or so pictures of the four bulls before they grew tired of watching me and made their way into the forest and up the mountain side.

A short way further east I found the intersection for Huston Hill Road. According to the directions that I have, I’m supposed to turn left onto Huston Hill Road, make a few right turns and I’ll be on Castle Garden Road which is where the trail head is located. None of these roads are paved and only Huston Hill Road could be considered an “Improved Gravel” road. The rest of these roads are basically improved logging roads or Jeep trails. I had Skeeter the Truckie in 4wd and was having a blast. Yes, my truck is named Skeeter the Truckie, what’s wrong with that? After maybe 20 minutes I found the trail head and marked a waypoint on the GPS. The Elk County Crew and I will definitely be able to find this trail during our October trip this year.

I had heard that Castle Garden Road from Route 555 to the trailhead was a rough road but I wanted to check it out for myself. Before I got to the rough part of the road I spotted another road that appeared to lead to a mountaintop overlook. You just know that I had to check this out. WHAT A VISTA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It seems that this is the highest point in the area and no matter which direction that you looked you saw nothing but mountains and trees, no signs of civilization at all!!! This is what Pennsylvania looked like hundreds of years ago. I tried for some panorama shots and marked a waypoint for this overlook, the Elk County Crew will love this when October finally rolls around.

Ok, back to Castle Garden Road. I made my way down from the mountain top to the rough part of the road. According to my topo maps there was an 1800+ feet elevation change in a little over a mile. A little further down the road I was glad that I had good tires and solid 4WD. The road was rock and mud and for the most part maybe 4 feet wider than the truck. The road clung to the side of the mountain for the entire descent. If I went off the road I was either going straight up or straight down the mountain. There were no guardrails and the berm on the edge was no more than 18” high. The mud on top of the rock made the road a little slippery as well. I truly enjoyed the experience but the pucker factor was an honest 8.5!!!

I eventually got to the bottom of Castle Garden Road, took the truck out of low gear and 4WD then turned west onto Route 555. It was time to leave the PA Elk Country and go to the wetlands of Mercer and Crawford Counties. On my west I saw three more groups of elk: 12 cows in the front yard of a camp; 2 bulls near the river and 3 bulls near the intersection of Rock Hill Road and Route 555. That brought my total to 33 elk in 2 ½ hours. I wasn’t done for the day yet, not by a long shot.

I had a stop to make south of Franklin, PA, before I headed to what would be my base camp for the next two days. I wanted to check out a wetlands area near Polk, PA. This stop was just to scout the wetlands to see if it would be worth the trip back in the future. After seeing the area, I believe that it would be worth the trip back, especially in the Fall.

From Polk I drove to the village of Sandy Lake which is near the camp where I’d be staying for the next two nights. I followed the GPS directions to the dam on Lake Wilhelm, from there I’d use my memory to get to the camp. I followed the south lake road along the lake shore for a few miles until I got to the intersection where the camp sits. Instead of going to the camp I turned and drove down to the cove on Lake Wilhelm that sits below the camp. I should have been more cautious on my approach because I spooked a large flock of Hooded and Common Mergansers from the cove. Luckily they didn’t fly too far and I was able to get some shots of them with the 40x eyepiece on the digiscope.

It’s now 1:30 PM, I’ve unloaded the truck, have the camp set up, had lunch and put a camera battery in the charger. I suppose that it’s time to check out a few of the areas I have marked on the map and GPS.

My first stop of the afternoon was at a place called “The Wells”. It’s the site of an artesian well on the edge of Geneva Swamp in Crawford County. Due to the heavy rains and snow melt the area was flooded. I stopped at a few other places around the swamp and they were flooded as well. There was supposed to be a cold front moving in during the late afternoon and evening. Already the predicted high winds were picking up and the temperatures were falling. It was going to be a rough afternoon.

I left the swamp and drove to the Pymatuning area. There are some ponds near the park maintenance buildings that I wanted to see. The ponds were very accessible but they held the usual Canada Geese and a few Ringneck ducks.

The next stop would be the spillway at Pymatuning. By now the wind was steady at 20-25 miles per hour so at the spillway there wasn’t much to be seen. I was able to get some good shots of some coots, turtles and deer in the vicinity of the spillway. I saw but got no shots of a Bald Eagle.

Due to the increasing wind speed I figured that I would work my way back to the camp. I drove along some back roads looking for photo opportunities the entire way. That is something nice about being able to do this: I wasn’t rushed or had to worry about taking care of other business for three days, I could go at my own speed and get any shots that came my way. I stopped at a few places that I had marked off on my map and GPS. These were in the game lands portion of northern Lake Wilhelm/Goddard State Park. Before I left Pittsburgh I was told of an eagle’s nest in that area. I saw the nest but didn’t see any of the eagles. I saw and got shots of two ospreys on a nest but due to the high winds very few of those shots were usable to me.

My last stop for the day would be the marina at Lake Wilhelm. I saw the usual geese and a hen Common Merganser but again the wind caused me problems and very few of those pictures came out.

I finally got back to the camp around 6:45 PM. I was hungry and worn out from a long day. I put in nearly 16 hours already, took about 300 pictures and drove over 300 miles. It was time for some chicken, a shower and bed. I have another loooooong day ahead of me tomorrow. Hopefully the wind will die down like it is supposed to do and I’ll be able to get some good shots.

Stay tuned for the next post “Day 2 Up North”. I’ll be going to Erie National Wildlife Refuge, Woodcock Creek Lake, Cambridge Springs, Edinboro, Pymatuning and Lake Wilhelm again.

North Park, March 23, 2008

2008-04-30T18:42:00.012-04:00

Easter Sunday 2008, the weather was a little milder than yesterday with warmer temperatures and less wind. I decided to go straight to “Old Faithful” which would be Marshall Lake at North Park. I had equipment troubles yesterday in a target rich environment and I really wanted to make up for that.

Before I even got to the parking area I saw Hooded Mergansers and Wood Ducks on the lake so I pulled over right away. Hoodies and Woodies, what a great way to start the day; I quickly set up the equipment and sneaked to a bush on the lake shore. The bush hid most of my movement so there was no alarm raised by the ducks.

After getting shots of the Hoodies and Woodies I moved to the normal parking area and walked to the island. I wasn’t even at the foot bridge to the island when I saw a few Common Grackles perched on one of the pine trees on the island. For what appears to be a simple black bird, when the light hits the Grackle’s head right, it shines with a brilliant blue iridescent color which makes it a site to see.

Thirty minutes into the day’s outing and I already had good shots of three species but I wanted more!!!! I made my way across the foot bridge to find Buffleheads in the water near the north end of the island. Something about these little waterfowl just fascinate me, I don’t know what it is but anytime I see them I have to get pictures.

I’ve said before here that I really don’t take that many pictures of Mallards and Canada Geese unless I have the chance to get some outstanding shots. Today I had that chance: I had a Mallard pair doing some ritual bonding on the west side of the lake and a Canada goose that followed me on my way around the island. The goose didn’t make any alarm calls or try to chase me from a nest; it seemed he was just watching me. I finally gave in and took a few shots of him. Would you believe it, after I took his picture he flew off to the other end of the lake? I guess he was just a ham.

While I was getting the Mallard shots I saw a couple of drake Wood Ducks along the far shore so you just know that I had to take some more pictures of them. Especially since the sun was up a little higher in the sky by this time making their colors really stand out.

I was happily snapping pictures of the woodies when I saw an odd species of duck. Upon further inspection it turned out to be a hen and drake Green Wing Teal. The pair was slowly making its way to the same area where the woodies were. This was Great! I didn’t have to move the digiscope or mess with the focus much at all.

During the three hours that I was out today I went through two batteries and filled a 2GB memory card. It was a great morning and turned out to be the best morning of Digiscoping that I’ve had this year, beating the morning on the rivers. Well the best so far anyway.

Stay Tuned to the blog, coming up in the next three posts I’ll relate to you the story of my three day trip “Up North”. Some of the highlights include elk, deer, bison and 20 avian species.

North Park , March 22, 2008

2008-04-28T18:15:00.005-04:00

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”.

Deer Lakes Park, Route 28, 9 Mile Run and Mom’s house. March 1, 2008.

2008-04-26T19:26:00.011-04:00

The morning dawned clear and cold; I decided to make a run to Deer Lakes Park to see what I could find there. On my way north on Route 28 I saw many hawks perched on light posts and trees on the side of the highway but I didn’t have a chance to get any pictures of them. I arrived at Deer Lakes Park only to find nothing but Mallards and Canada Geese. I turned right around to try for some of those hawks that I saw on the way north. I was no sooner back on Route 28 heading south when I had my first chance at a Red-Tailed Hawk. However, by the time I had the equipment set-up the hawk was gone. Back into the truck I went. Down the road another mile or so I saw another Red-Tail in a tree alongside the highway; this time my kit was already set up so I was able to start shooting less than a minute after stopping the truck. I was on the side of the road for a little over 5 minutes but I got more than 20 pictures of the hawk in that amount of time.

About 40 minutes after shooting the hawk pictures I pulled into the parking area at 9 Mile Run on the Monongahela River. Right away I saw two photo opportunities: On an old pier piling was perched a young Ring Billed Gull; A second Ring Billed Gull was walking around the parking area. The shots that I got of the first gull would remind you of the type of sea gull pictures that you see on Oceanside resort brochures. I also got plenty of shots of the second gull as he moseyed around the parking lot. Not counting the pictures of the hawk I already had 75 good pictures for the day and I didn’t even look at the river yet which it was time to do.

Since I was in a more open area I had the Teton binoculars on my harness. They give me a better visual reach over longer distances. Looking north on the river, towards Pittsburgh, I saw a few mallards swimming towards me. This time of the year is the start of the Spring waterfowl migration north so I knew that there had to be other species around this area. I turned to face south which is actually up-river(The Monongahela flows south to north) and oh boy what I saw!!! About 100 yards up river from the mouth of 9-Mile Run there was a handful of Canvasbacks, Redheads and Ringneck ducks! The Canvasbacks and Redheads are uncommon in Western Pennsylvania but are more common along the Susquehanna River system. These guys were way off course but I was going to shoot them while I had the chance. Quickly I came up with a plan of attack. I would cross the small bridge over the creek as quietly as possible then try to sneak up river to get some closer shots of the off-course ducks. I started towards the bridge when I heard one, loud “QUACK!!” from the mouth of the stream. That’s an alarm call so I pulled my binos up to my eyes and scanned the creek. I saw several mallards plus a drake and hen Pintail. The drake pintail was looking right at me. It was then that I realized that I was silhouetted against the sky and the Pintail drake gave another alarm call. I tried to set up fast enough to get a shot of the Pintail but he took off before I could do anything. The Pintail species is another that is uncommon in Western Pennsylvania but more common in the central and eastern parts of the state.

Pintails, Canvasbacks and Redheads are extremely wild ducks unlike the Mallards and Canada Geese that nest in relatively close locations to humans. These species of ducks will migrate to and from Northern Canada each year, only passing through Pennsylvania during the migrations in spring and fall. They will always be on the alert for humans and other predators and will spook as soon as they believe that they are in danger. Visit your local lake or pond where Mallards and Canada Geese nest each year and see how soon those species will spook as you approach them. You’ll find that you can get quite close which isn’t the case with the wilder ducks.

Well, after standing as still as possible for a few minutes, I slowly crept across the bridge to check the Canvasbacks and Redheads. I was in luck, they weren’t spooked by the Pintail drake. I checked the creek mouth again to find that the Pintail hen was still there. I set up as quickly and quietly as possible then I was able to get several shots of her. I would have liked to have gotten shots of the drake as well but I will settle for the hen for now.

I now had the task of creeping up on the Canvasbacks and Redheads. One thing that I didn’t factor into my plan was the hard crunchy crust on the snow. I wanted to get as close as I could manage to the ducks while having as few tree branches as possible in my way. The crunchy snow prevented this so I worked my way back to the parking area. I knew that I’d be able to get shots from there with my 40x eyepiece.

I got back to the parking area and connected up the 40x lens. With that on the scope I was able to get some decent pictures of the Canvasbacks and Redheads which were now moving up the river away from me. I had to act fast and I did. The pictures weren’t as good as they would have been if I had been able to get closer to them but they will satisfy me for now.

After I got back to the parking area I noticed that a large flock of gulls landed on a giant chunk of driftwood on the river. When I finished getting the pictures of the ducks I again switched eyepieces and got some shots of the gulls on the driftwood. I’ve had a great day so far and I packed up to leave so that I could hit one more spot.

Earlier in the week I had promised mom that I would stop by for more pictures of “Her” birds. Twenty-five minutes after leaving 9-Mile Run I was pulling up the driveway at mom’s house. I set up my equipment as I did the week before and I quickly snapped another 75-80 shots. My memory card was full and I decided that I had enough for one morning.

After 3 ½ hours and over 700 pictures I sat in mom’s living room and played with her dog while sharing with mom the stories of my best digiscoping day of the year…so far.

Mom's House February 22, 2008

2008-04-15T18:46:00.005-04:00

Mom’s House February 22, 2008
For as long as I can remember my mom has been putting out bird feeders during the winter months. This year my sister bought her one that blocks the larger birds from getting to the seeds and allows only the smaller birds to feed. This helps the little guys eat and keeps them from getting chased away by the larger birds. She’s been bugging me since Christmas time to come over and take some pictures of “Her” birds. Well finally this week I knew that I would have the time and that there would be snow on the ground so that would almost force the little guys to use her feeder. I really didn’t mind heading to her house for several reasons: chance to see mom; got to sleep in instead of waking very early and driving in the dark for an hour or so; chance to play with mom’s dog; could go inside of the house and get warm whenever I wanted.

She has the bird feeder set up outside the living room door of her house which is actually on the second floor. This allowed me to set up my equipment at the corner of the house and to be partially blocked from the birds view. I knew that I would spook them if I was too far in the open and they wouldn’t use the feeder. The distance from the feeder to the objective lens of my scope was approximately 14 yards. Being at such a short distance would give me the chance for some great shots on these little birds.

Once I was all set up and the birds accepted my presence I was treated to a steady relay of Black Capped Chickadees and Tufted Titmouse. It was a treat this morning watching these little guys fly into the feeder. They were using the lilac bush and the evergreen trees for staging areas. They’d zip from the staging tress, go in for a quick bite then wait their turn again in the staging areas. I counted 5 different Titmouse and 7 different Chickdees

2008-04-15T18:21:00.007-04:00

Deer Lakes Park February 16, 2008
For the two weeks or so before this outing we had some very cold weather and several inches of snow. This in turn will lead to most open water being frozen. On my last outing I saw that Lake Arthur at Moraine was a little less than ½ ice covered and that was two weeks before this trip. A few days before this trip I made some phone calls to park offices to find out the amount of ice coverage on the lakes at area parks.
Lake Arthur – 85-90% covered, some waterfowl on the open water on the main lake.
North Park – The person that I talked to must beam herself to the office because she said that she didn’t drive past either of the lakes at the park. (You can’t get to the office without going past one of the two lakes there.) She said that she had no idea how much ice was on either of the lakes.
Deer Lakes Park – The person that I talked to was very knowledgeable and helpful. They installed aerators in the lakes to keep them open for waterfowl during the winter so each of the three lakes had some open water. He also told me that there was the usual Canada Geese and Mallards plus some other uncommon types. Needless to say I was heading to Deer Lakes Park.

I had never been to Deer Lakes Park before so I didn’t know what to expect. I had a rough idea of the layout thanks to the map I found online but that doesn’t replace actual knowledge. So using the GPS I was able to find my way to the lakes with no trouble at all. At the lakes I found a small flock of Canada Geese and the usual Mallards as I was told. So after setting up the equipment I took some warm up pictures of the mallards. Some of these pictures actually came out rather well, I was surprised. Most of the ducks was standing around on the edge of the ice. I don’t blame them, I wouldn’t want to go in the water this morning either, the temperature was in the high teens.

While walking to the other end of this lake I saw a very strange looking duck, I couldn’t get any pictures of him at the time though. I made my way to the far end of the lake and found a new duck species to me. I wasn’t sure at the moment what it was so I just started taking pictures. It was a diving duck so I got into his rhythm and eventually got some pictures that were keepers. The entire time I was shooting the diver I kept my eye on the odd duck and persistence paid off when I was able to get a handful of pictures of this strange duck.

With the cold temperatures and the snow/freezing rain mixture that was falling I barely lasted two hours on this outing. So I was on my way home wondering what those two ducks were. When I got home I checked my reference books and found that the diver was a Common Goldeneye but I had no luck with the odd duck. I didn’t find out what it was until almost two months later; I saw a post on PA Birdline about a Cinnamon Teal-Bluewing Teal hybrid that was seen on Canonsburg Lake in Washington County which is south of Pittsburgh. The post said that pictures were available at the user’s online album. I went to the album and sure enough there was the mystery duck or one just like it. Now this was an odd hybrid because to my knowledge Cinnamon Teal rarely if ever migrate east of the Mississippi River and Blue Wing Teal rarely if ever go West of the Mississippi. Anyway somehow a pair of them got together and made at least one youngin’ and I was lucky enough to get pictures of him.

Pittsburgh’s Rivers February 2, 2008

2008-04-13T16:54:00.005-04:00

On the morning of February 2, 2008 I decided to visit a couple of spots on Pittsburgh’s rivers. I had a new 40x eyepiece to try on the scope and the rivers seemed like a good place to go.

My first stop was near the Highland Park Dam on the Allegheny River. I had heard earlier in the week that there was a variety of ducks in that area. Unfortunately the river was running very high so the ducks weren’t around on the Allegheny. I did manage to test out the new eyepiece on some seagulls that were roosting on the Highland Park Bridge. The wind was out of the Northwest and was blowing pretty well so the wind chill was in the low 20’s, after about 45 minutes I’d had enough on the Allegheny.

I got into the truck and drove to the mouth of 9-Mile Run on the Monongahela River. Again the river was running high and fast. I was able to get a few shots of a Ringneck duck and some Mallards on the river itself.

I eventually meandered to the stream itself. There the water was much calmer and the lighting was great. I got some really outstanding shots of a pair of Mallards. Due to the really cold weather this morning, after shooting the Mallards, I decided that I had enough for one day and went on my way to my warm house.

Moraine State Park Dec. 27, 2007

2008-04-12T20:24:00.006-04:00

After a long Christmas season I decided that I needed some time outdoors. If you recall, I work two jobs, one in retail. You know how retail is during the Christmas season…it’s NUTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The entire month of December I was working 65-70+ hours per week total between both jobs. So since I was on Christmas break from the university I had most of my days free during the week between Christmas and New Years. I chose to go to Lake Arthur at Moraine State Park.

My first stop was the Old Route 422 boat launch. All that I saw there were Canada geese. In my part of the country it seems that you can’t swing a stick without hitting a Canada goose. Needless to say I won’t shoot pictures of them unless I can get a great shot.

I’ve been going to Moraine since I was a wee lad fishing with my dad. Every now and again I would see a vehicle or two at a part of the lake where there were no roads that I knew of at the time. Well today I found how to get there. I wanted to test the 4WD in my new truck anyway so off I went. I didn’t get any pictures while I was on that road but the truck got muddy so I suppose that you could say it was a fun little ride.

After playing in the mud I moved to the South Shore Recreation Center at Moraine. It’s basically a large swimming and picnic area on the lake shore. There I finally found something worth shooting: Coots and Buffleheads. I had only seen one Coot before and never saw a Bufflehead so it was kind of a treat for me. Both of these species are divers which mean that they dive completely under water to feed. Even though they were both grouped together I mentally separated them and got into the rhythm each was using. The Buffleheads were constantly diving but after watching them for a while I was able to figure out the general area where each would surface again. I was able to do the same thing with the coots and even got some shots of them on land.

After about 250 pictures I decided that it was time to move on. I put the digiscope outfit into the truck and went closer to the main part of the lake. I thought that the flock of 30-40 Coots at my previous stop was a large flock; near the shore on the main part of the lake was a flock that numbered in the hundreds!!!! I grabbed the digiscope from the back of the truck and realized that I wasn’t careful enough when putting it in; the shutter cable release was broken!!! DAMMMMMIITT!!!!!!!!!!! I still used the scope to see what else was there. In addition to the Coots there were Redheads, Canvasbacks and Ringneck ducks to be seen. Oh well.

The First Post

2008-04-11T12:52:00.002-04:00

What is “Digiscoping”?
Digiscoping is the combined use of a spotting or terrestrial telescope and a digital camera for distance photography of wildlife. If you are familiar with SLR cameras, the equipment that I use gives me the rough equivalent of a 1200 -2400 mm lens.

I use a 60mm Nikon Fieldscope, a Nikon P3 digital camera and either a 24x or 40x eyepiece for the scope. The camera has a 3x zoom so then with the 24x eyepiece I get a maximum magnification of 72x (72 times closer image or 24x3) and with the 40x eyepiece I have a maximum magnification of 120x (40x3). Depending on the size of the animal that I’m photographing I can have the range of nearly ½ mile under the best conditions.

Picture from http://www.nikonusa.com/

About Me:
I’ve been digiscoping for about a year now and I can honestly say that I’m addicted to it. I’m always thinking of what kind of shot I can get when I see an animal. The main problem for me is finding the time to get out and get the pictures. You see, I work two jobs; the first is at a major research university and the second is at an outdoor outfitting store. It was at this store that I first discovered digiscoping. I’m based in Western Pennsylvania and concentrate on waterfowl but will take pictures of any animal that comes my way. I’d eventually like to have a collection of every type of waterfowl that resides or passes through Pennsylvania.

Equipment That I use:
I’ve already mentioned the digiscope outfit so here’s a list of the other equipment that goes with me on each outing:
-Alpen Teton 10x42 binoculars

picture from http://www.alpenoptics.com/

-Brunton Eterna 8x45 binoculars

picture from http://www.brunton.com/

-Realtree APG camouflage
-Merrell boots
-Native Eyewear
-Brunton tripod and head
-Manfrotto tripod
-Springfield Arms XD-40
-Garmin Etrex Legend Cx

About This Blog:
I’ll mainly be using this blog as a record of my digiscoping outings; however you never know what you will find on here: I could be recalling funny times from my past; I might be venting about the world today; I might talk about guns or the work that I do every day. You'll notice that the first several posts will be of the "Flashback" type where I'm catching up on the trips that I've made so far this year(2008). They'll be like that until I'm fully up to date.

The opinions expressed here are my own, yours may differ, I really don’t care because this is my little corner of the internet. Unless stated, the pictures displayed on this blog are my property and may not be duplicated in any way.

That's about all for now, on my next post I'll go over the last trip of 2007 or the first real trip that this blog will cover.