Serpentine Encounter

After a nice lunch with Kelly in Hershey I decided to head up to the Hawkwatch as it was nice and sunny with a North Westerly wind which is normally pretty good up there. On the way up the mountain I saw what I thought was a dead snake in the road but I thought I'd stop and check it out. It was very much alive, just sunbathing in the middle of the road, dumb snake. I went back and got my camera and hastily took a few shots as I was sure someone would come along and drive over it. As it was nobody came along even though I was prepared to jump out and halt them but I got a long stick and shooed it off the road after talking a few shots of course.

Black Rat Snake

Black Rat Snake 

Black Rat Snake

Old Photo's

As I haven't ventured outside yet I've been looking at photo's from our trip out to the SW this spring. Heres one I like of an early morning start on the way to Death Valley.

Desert Flowers

Wet and Windy

Wind I can tolerate when I'm out, in a lot of cases I welcome it, seawatching, or hawkwatching or just sitting on a headland such as Schoodic Point watching the waves breaking. Wet I can also tolerate if it's not too cold and I'm wearing appropriate gear. Wet AND Windy you can keep it. Screw that for a lark. Instead of heading out and taking a few pictures I decided to stay inside and torment the cats with my new bounce flash thingy.

Badger was very impressed

Pumpkin telling me to piss off and go flash Bluey

Rascal was not impressed with my bounce flash thingy.

Catnip OD

Rascal was hanging out at the front door while I was taking the trash out, it being Thursday and trash night. There are some Catnip plants growing by the front door and I usually bring her a bit of greenery to chew on. Tonight Oliver, Willow and Rascal were all there wanting a leaf or two. Willow I think had a Catnip overdose. Apart from leaping on Oliver several times even though he's twice her size, she's been running around in a bout of kitty rips.

Willow on Catnip

Harvesting

Yesterday they started harvesting the corn with a spanking yellow New Holland Combine. Theres a fair bit of corn left over for the geese to feed on during the winter.

Better view now.

Corn

Moose

Moose had a tooth extraction last week and had some blood taken prior to the anesthesia. They shaved his neck to find a vein and I think the shaver nicked his whiskers a little. He also had his legs shaved and he now looks like a Poodle. He's a lot happier without his bad tooth.

Moose

The Sea, Ocean, Pond whatever ......Day 2

Wednesday morning was an earlyish start to get out to the Higbee Beach Observation Tower for the Morning Flight of migrant birds.

The weather was hot and humid even at 7am and the mossies were quite active. Unlike the bities at home which make a high pitched zzzzzzzzzzzz these little bastards were in stealth mode. You don't know you've been relieved of several pints until you feel the itch.

The morning flight was a bit slow with very low numbers, the highlight being a Clay-colored Sparrow which kept popping up from time to time. There was a brief look at a Yellow-billed Cuckoo and a few Indigo Buntings.

Clay-colored Sparrow and Indigo Bunting

Clay-colored Sparrow

Clay-colored Sparrow

Forty Three years ago this month we went on the Cape May NJ to Lewes Delaware ferry and I remember seeing quite a few sea birds. What I remember most was the Bacon Sandwiches that they made on the boat, I had a nice cup of tea and 2 bacon butties way back then. Nowadays due to insurance reasons they only serve pre-packaged plastic imitations of the real thing. Damn! I was so looking forward to a nice bacon sarnie.

Not many sea birds to speak of, several Great Black-backed Gulls, Scoter and assorted other gulls. I did find one Parasitic Jaeger (Pomerine Skua) which flew and I managed a few distant shots. Pulling into Lewes the Herring Gulls were following the boat for discarded bacon sandwiches.

Parasitic Jaeger

Parasitic Jaeger

Herring Gull

After leaving Lewes I headed back home stopping at Bombay Hook. It was miserably hot so I didn't stay long. Lots of shorebirds,  Dunlin, Dowitchers, both Yellow Legs, Pectoral, Semi-P, Least and several long distance Marbled Godwits with a possible Hudsonian but too far to tell.

American Avocets along with the odd Godwit 

The Sea, Ocean, Pond whatever..... Day 1

I needed to smell the sea air so I took myself off for a couple of days out to Cape May. I left at 5am on Tuesday and missed the worst of the Philadelphia early morning traffic. I initially headed out to the Seawatch at Avalon. Huge flights of Cormorants, lots of Black and Surf Scoter, a few Gannets and Royal and Caspian Terns. 

Surf Scoter

When I reached Cape May I drove along Beach Avenue to find the Skimmers and Terns on the beach.  I found several mixed groups, got my feet wet from walking too close to the incoming waves.

Royal Tern

Royal Tern

Forsters Tern

Juvenile Black Skimmer

Skimmers and Laughing Gulls

Very hard to get a Skimmer on it's own to get an isolated shot. I didn't want to disturb them so screw it, here's a group shot.

After an hour or so I headed down to the Cape May Lighthouse and the Hawkwatch Platform.

It was a lot hotter than the forecasted 72f, that combined with the dew point made it feel like the 90's. Made me wish I had worn shorts and not jeans.

Loads of Peregrines coming through, they had 111 for the day. Merlin, Kestrel, Bald Eagle, Broadwings, Red-tails, Harrier's pretty much everything except for Red-shouldered. I went for a walk along the trails to get out of the sun and ran into a flock of Turkey.

Mockingbird

Turkey's

A final walk along the beach at dusk and I took a shot of the lighthouse in the distance.

Cape May Lighthouse

Ricketts Glen State Park

It's October so time for a trip up to Ricketts Glen for the Waterfalls. They had a hell of thunderstorm up there Tuesday so I picked Thursday to head up for the day. Wow. So much water, normally in October there's not usually much water so you can hop about selecting the right viewing angle. Not today. I stayed the F away from the water because you wouldn't stand a chance if you fell in. I made it all the way down Ganoga Glen to Waters Meet and a good way up Glen Leigh before turning round and heading back up Ganoga. I added a short video at the end, it's short but big so don't even try unless you have a fast connection.

Ganoga Falls 94ft

Oneida Falls

Waters Meet