Elk County and Deer Lakes Park 1-2-2009

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

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

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

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

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

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.