Bear in the Neighborhood

With the warmer weather I'm hearing more reports of bear activity in the neighborhood, raiding trash cans and bird feeders.

I checked the game cameras at our cabin property and the bear was within 30 yards of my deer stand. A close look at the bear's left ear shows an ear tag that means the bear has been caught at least once before.

The bear also has a scar on it's nose from previous activity with other bears (or a sharp can lid).

Another view of the ear tag.

Geese

I was doing some yardwork behind our barn and found this flock of geese in the cattails.

Bird Watching

It was a cool/drizzly morning as I drove to check on a drainage project I was working on. I found this small flock of geese grazing in a field where I recently planted some swamp oak trees.

Upon closer inspection of the geese I found some turkeys trying to blend in with the flock of geese.

It's hard for a strutting gobbler to hide.

Spring Turkey Hunt

My spring turkey hunt ended at 9:45 this morning when I bagged this gobbler.

Turkey Hunting

Spring turkey season started on Saturday with no luck hunting from my stand at our cabin property. I gave the turkeys a couple days of rest and went to our West Hill stand early this morning. I was in the stand before sunrise and soon saw movement of a dark object in the woods. It was a black bear. I was only able to get a couple of photos in the dim morning light. Other than the bear, no turkeys, no deer, no crows, no blue jays ...

Baby Geese

I spotted the first batch of baby geese on our neighbor's pond.

Three More Days ...

... until the start of spring turkey season (the deer have another 6 months).

Spring Turkeys

The spring turkey hunting season opens on Saturday. I'm not sure where these gobblers will be on Saturday but I do know where they were today.

Bobcat

I pulled the memory cards on a couple of game cameras today and see that a Bobcat was in the neighborhood yesterday.

Nor'easter

After days of warm weather the Monday morning weather forecast started with a prediction of 1 to 3 inches of snow overnight. As the day went on the forecast changed to 3 to 5 inches of snow and then 6 to 8 inches. When we went to bed Monday night it was a light rain with a few snow flakes. At 3:00AM Tuesday our power went off and by daylight we had 7 to 8 inches of very wet snow.

This Nor'Easter had knocked out nearly half of the power in this area of the state. The information from our electric provider was this would be a multiple day outage. After starting our generator to run our freezers and well pump I headed to town to get more gasoline and found trees across the road.

The local wildlife appeared confused by this change in the weather.

Being a springtime weather event, by the afternoon the snow had started melting and the spring flowers became visible again.

By Wednesday our power was still off and the sound of home generators echoed through the neighborhood. By Wednesday afternoon most of the snow had melted and the township crew was busy opening roads. Our electrical power was restored at 7:00AM this morning (Thursday) but 35% of our service provider's customers, 6,600 homes were still without electrical service.

Looking for a Cool Spot

The local deer are just starting to shed their winter coats. With today's temperature reaching into the mid 70's the deer were looking for a cool spot to relax.

The Warmth of Springtime

The past few mornings have been frosty but today's afternoon temperature got into the high 60's. As the sun started to set and the temperature dropped this Eastern Garter Snake was trying to suck some heat out of a warm rock.

Sharp-shinned Hawk

I was enjoying my morning coffee when I heard this very loud "thud" of something hitting a window. In our lawn, about 12 feet from the window, was this Sharp-shinned Hawk. I was only able to get this one photo of the hawk before it flew off.

Rototiller Maintenance

It started out as a simple little job of replacing a couple of oil seals on my 40 year old Troy Bilt tiller. As with many "simple little jobs", fixing all the problems you find will require more additional time than you planned.

While replacing the oil seals on the tiller tine shaft I discovered a deep groove in the shaft was causing the oil seal to leak. Removing the old tine shaft I found wear on the bronze gear and replaced it along with the new tine shaft and bearings. After installing the new tine shaft, bronze gear and bearings I discovered excessive end play on the drive shaft from the engine and ordered shims to correct the end play problem.

After having the tiller engine pointed down to work on the tiller tine shaft repairs I discovered the front input shaft oil seal was leaking and needed to be replaced. This required removing the 7hp cast iron engine to replace a $4.00 seal. With the engine removed it was a good time to replace the old drive belt.

The old bronze gear and tiller tine shaft with the groove that caused the oil leak.

I also installed a new set of tiller tines and re-welded the tine cover. One good thing about an old Troy Bilt tiller is being able to get replacement parts.

Bald Eagle

Within the last week I've had a few sightings of bald eagles around our barn but I haven't been able to get any photos. Today I found this bald eagle in a tree along Wysox Creek waiting for a meal when they restock the creek with trout.