Stoney Valley

When you drive up the rocky track they call Cold Springs Road and you reach the top of Second Mountain you can go right to the 2nd Mountain Hawkwatch or straight on down into Stoney Valley. The 'road' down into Stoney is pretty good these days, it wasn't too long ago that you needed a Jeep or a truck to get down there. Once you get down to the bottom and cross Stoney Creek you can carry on a little way until you come to a dead end and a place to park your car. In the late 19th Century this was a thriving resort town with 2 hotels. All that's left now are ruins amongst the trees.

http://www.stonyvalley.com/coldspring.html

It was several degrees cooler down in valley which was welcome. I had a walk along the path until I reached the old railway line that's been converted into a trail for non mechanized bikes or hikers. A few shots from this morning.

Downhill into Stoney Valley

it's a bit Stoney

Stoney Creek

Stoney Creek

Stoney Creek

Nice Alder Tree along Stoney Creek

Lichen covered wall

Lichen covered wall

Cool and Green and Shady

Dark under the pines

Entrance to one of the hotels maybe?

Another wall for something.

Old railway line is now Rails to Trails.

17 miles from Goldmine Road to Dauphin on the Susquehanna.

They open it to one way cars once a year.

Just in case you don't like snakesssssss

 Here's a nice fluffy Myrtle Warbler.

Myrtle Warbler

a.k.a

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Ssssssssssssssnakesssssssssssss

 Several serpents. 

Black Rat Snake

Momma Rattlesnake

Baby Rattlesnakes

Nice Yellow Phase Timber Rattler

Third time lucky.

The juvenile Yellow-crowned Night-Heron has been around for a couple of weeks now and on the two previous occasions that I popped over to the pond I missed seeing it. To be fair it always was in the middle of the day and being a Night-Heron it wasn't too surprising.  This afternoon on my way over to Middle Creek I decided to have another shot at it, figuratively speaking of course. When I pulled up at the pond the first thing I saw was a hulking great Cooper's Hawk and I hoped it hadn't had Night-heron for lunch. Not too far away though stood the Yellow-crowned oblivious to the evil looking Cooper's. 

juvenile Yellow-crowned Night-Heron

juvenile Yellow-crowned Night-Heron

I failed miserably with locating the Limpkin at Middle Creek but did manage a juvenile Black-crowned Night-Heron for comparison.

juvenile Black-crowned Night-Heron on the Middle Creek Dam

Clouds

 I was out and about a bit yesterday but nothing much in the way of birds or butterflies or flowers so I photographed clouds instead.

Middle Creek early afternoon

Second Mountain just as a storm hit

Second Mountain rain

Fields around home with retreating storm

Fields around home with retreating storm

Nasty but nice.

Despite a thunderstorm booming right overhead at some unearthly hour I was up and about at 2:45am  and out the door on my way by 3am. I stopped just down the lane away from the trees for five minutes and saw 4 of the Perseid meteors which was nice. The temperature at that time was already 73F (22.7C) with a low lying mist along the lane from the thunderstorm rain. A nice quiet low volume traffic drive down to Bombay Hook and I got there at 5:45am. Sunrise was 6:13am so I was in place where I wanted to be in plenty of time. Damn! It was a steamy though, 85F (29.4C) and even in the dark the nasty biting flies were active. My lens instantly fogged up due to the humidity but I managed to keep it clear while I was photographing. In the end I had to turn off the A/C to stop the windows from misting up. I was slowly driving around with the windows open which of course attracted all the flies. Lots of bug spray helped a little. The tide was almost in and the majority of shorebirds and egrets were distant and as the sun rose so did the heat haze which doesn't help with a long lens. I left Bombay Hook quite early to drive to a nearby retention pond to see the Black-bellied Whistling Ducks. I knew I should have brought the 500mm. From there I took a trip South to Port Mahon but by this time it was 90F (32.2C) and very harsh bright light with lots of heat haze so although I took a few shots I headed home. All in all a nice early morning out.

Photo's mostly in alphabetical order.

Nearly Sunrise

Just after sunrise

Halberd-leaved Rosemallow

(according to the Seek App on my iPhone)

Black-bellied Whistling Duck

Black-bellied Whistling Duck

Blue Grosbeak

Assorted Egrets

Curious Fox

Forster's Terns

Great Egret

young Green Heron

Semipalmated Sandpiper

Spotted Sandpiper

Swamp Rosemallow

(again according to the Seek App)

Garden Flowers and a Butterfly

After mowing the front lawn and having to duck under the branches of a Bird Cherry I decided to take a few pictures. 

Bird Cherry

bring on the Cedar Waxwings

Front Butterfly Patch
Iron Weed, Mexican Sunflowers, Joe Pye Weed, Coneflower, BeeBalm and Mimosa

Common Milkweed and loads of bugs

Coreopsis

Culver's Root (I think)

Ironweed

Wild Bergamot

Great Spangled Fritillary

Great Spangled Fritillary

Great Spangled Fritillary

 I totally forgot about this one.

Great Spangled Fritillary on Milkweed