Young Buck

The warm spring weather has triggered this young buck's antlers to start growing and a small rack is now visible. He is also shedding his winter coat for a cooler summer coat.

Goose Crossing

Stopped at our cabin today and was glad to see the geese were using the designated crossing area.

Geese on the Pond

Within the last couple of days our cabin pond has been invaded by geese. For most of the spring these geese were nesting on the other side of Joyce Road on Miner's Pond.



The seven little goslings were hatched on Miner's Pond and within days the parents moved the little ones to our pond.

Wildflowers - Wild Strawberry

With warmer than normal spring days I took a walk through some of our wooded property and found several verities of wild flowers in bloom. This wild strawberry (Fragaria virginiana) blossom will change its appearance almost daily as a cone-shaped center enlarges to form the red berry in a few weeks.

Spring Turkey Hunting

The Pennsylvania spring turkey season (bearded bird only ) opened on May 2 and I was up at 4:45AM to match wits with these birds. I've seen a few birds in the area during the spring, but the first task is to call the gobbles out of the woods and close enough to shoot.



One method to get the birds close is to use a decoy (on the right).



Not only will a decoy attract turkeys, other animals may come in to check out the decoys.



Not all birds that come to the decoys are legal to shoot. This hen turkey came within 3 feet of me, but they're not legal to shoot during the spring season.



Finally, after several early mornings of waiting, a small (tasty) gobbler came in and was shot several times with my digital camera.

Bats

We've been working at our barn for the last couple of weeks and today I noticed colony (group) of at least 4 bats huddled in a timber mortise on the underside of a large beam. The cooler overnight temperature may have forced them to huddle together for warmth. The bats remained in the same mortise all day as we worked with hammers and power tools under them

What happened to Spring!!!

After a couple of warm spring days the temperature started to drop yesterday. This morning I watched huge snowflakes crash on our deck as I drank my coffee. It continued to snow off and on all day, but the snow didn't stick and the temperature barely got out of the 30's.



It was just two days ago that I took this picture of a turtle crossing Joyce Road at Miner's Pond.

Home Sweet Home

This Tree Swallow has claimed a bird house near our cabin and was busy defending his real estate from other house hunters.

Turtles on the move (slowly)

The ice has just come off the ponds and the water is still cold, but I found this Eastern Painter Turtle (Chrysemys picta picta) catching a few rays of sun near our cabin.



This little guy was still a bit cold and not moving very fast (even for a turtle).

Spring Turkeys

With the temperatures in the 60's and 70's for the past couple of the days, the neighborhood turkeys can be seen and heard as they play the "Dating Game".




This guy struts but hardly gets a second look from some hens.

"Froggie Went A Courtin'"

There's a Bob Dylan song called "Froggie Went A Courtin" but it's not a song from Bob Dylan we hear in the neighborhood, it's a chorus from the Wood Frogs (Lithobates sylvaticus).



With the ice just off the local ponds, the Wood Frogs are the first frogs to start their mating season.

Migrating Gulls

After a couple of warmer days this spring, ice on the local ponds has melted enough to allow waterfowl to find some open water. A flock of 30+ Herring Gulls (Larus argentatus) made a stop-over on Miner's Pond during their migration to the Great Lakes from their winter grounds.

We've Been Traveling ...

During the cold weather of February we headed for a place with a warmer climate and took a trip to India and Nepal. I spent most of March sorting through the 4,000+ photos from the trip and created another web blog of our 15 day tour of India & Nepal.

Link to Tour of India & Nepal

Some of the places we visited. The Taj Mahal in Arga, India.



The Amber Fort in Jaipur, India.



The Boudhanath Stopa in Kathmandu, Nepal.

More signs of Spring ???

Mother Nature might be playing a belated April Fools joke, but it didn't look like spring today. Our crocus have backtracked from their colorful blooms of a couple of days ago and are now rethinking their early opening of blooms.

More signs of Spring

After a bitter cold February and a colder than normal March, the first couple days of April were in the upper 50's to 60's. The crocus have popped out of the ground and started adding some color to the neighborhood.