Spring Turkey Season

This Saturday is the start of the spring turkey season. I checked some of my game cameras and think I've found a location for one of my turkey blinds.

Baby Geese

This year's baby geese are starting to appear on our pond.

Even the local deer want to check out the new arrivals.

More geese and more curious deer. Two deer, four adult geese and 13 baby geese.

Star-nosed Mole

It finally stopped raining long enough that I could start working in my garden. As I started tilling the garden I dug up this Star-nosed Mole. Since the Star-nosed Mole likes mucky/swampy areas, my garden would be a perfect place for this mole.

Visiting Bobcat

I moved a couple of game cameras to a new location. I'm still working on the camera placement.

This Bobcat came in to check out the cameras.

In Search of Totality

We had witnessed the 2017 Eclipse and soon after started making plans for the 2024 Eclipse. This total eclipse would be much closer and within a 2 hour drive from home. As the day of the eclipse drew closer, the weather forecast started calling for high thin clouds and then chances of rain for the big event. When we started our drive on the morning of the 8th, it was sunny and we saw this Bald Eagle feeding along the edge of the highway, within a couple of miles of our home. I turned around to get a photo of the eagle and it flew into this tree.

Having been through the 2017 Eclipse, my plan was to look for a location with lots of parking, easy access to a return route and access to rest rooms. My logistics planning zeroed in on the south bound rest area on I-390 at the Mount Morris, NY. We arrived at the rest area at 10:00AM and only found a half dozen cars. As we waited for the start of the eclipse, we got to know some of the other people and found their planning also used the same criteria which selected this rest area. By 2:00PM the rest area was full and overflowing.

Our little viewing area ready for the big event. We were still able to see the sun peak through the clouds.

By 2:00PM the clouds got thicker as the eclipse started.

The clouds blocked viewing the eclipse but around 3:15PM the sky started to turn darker. It was the start of totality. We couldn't see the Sun being blocked by the Moon, but I did record a video of what happened. My video was 6 minutes long and I changed the video play speed to reduce it to half a minute.

Shortly after totality, this hot air balloon drifted by the rest area.

Traffic on I-390 leaving the rest area wasn't bad until we reached road construction at Dansville, NY. After leaving the road construction area, the traffic was heavy until Corning, NY.

Bald Eagles

Prior to the PA trout season opening next week, Wysox Creek has been stocked with trout. The time between the stocking of trout and the start of trout season is prime time to see bald eagles along Wysox Creek. As I crossed the bridge over Wysox Creek this morning, I found a pair of juvenile eagles checking out the fresh fish selection in the creek.