11 June 2021 The Babies Have Hatched

 We have baby bluebirds!  This is a treat for us.

We can go entire seasons with no successful blue bird nests.  We were really excited to see the babies.  At the end of the last fall we had major damage to two nearby trees from high winds followed by an ice storm,  I debated taking the trees down or making the substantial time investment to prune and repair.   The bluebirds often use the trees for cover to protect the nest and feed the babies.  Seeing the successful nesting made me happy for the tree effort.

7 June 2021 Return of the Office Heron

 

6 June 2021 Searching for Orchids

 We have a limited number of orchids we have found on the property.  There is a small stand of round leaf orchids which used to bllom, but have not in a number of years.  We set aside time each year for a trail maintenance and orchid hunt hike.

We make certain to keep eyes open for any wildlife along the way.

We found three orchids this year which seems to be what we normally see in recent years.  None had any sign of a flower spike.

We always try to identify species we find.  The caterpillar and the spider remain a mystery.

Our clearing had nice stands of blue-eyed grass in bloom.

5 June 2021 Rail 66

June is a perfect time for us to hit the trail in Clarion County.  The long days give time for the drive with plenty of time for a hike.  Our first stop was at an SGL.  We missed the first cache and countinued down the trail for the second hide.  We were a little surprised as we reached about a tenth of the mile from the cache.

At one time there was a road here with the remains of the bridge pilings visible on the other shore.

I wouldn't have tackled this one without two dogs.  There was no way we were going for this crossing with the dogs.  It was time to move one.

Ali routed us to Rail 66 rail trail.  It was our first visit here, but seemed a good option.  I really liked the sign.

The trail was dotted with bird boxes.

It was a warm day even in the shade.  A small rest hut made for a great place to stop for water with Liz and Phin.

Liz by the resting hut...

Tadpoles on the way

The trail eventually left the woods and became a really hot walk for the dogs.  We stopped for a couple more caches before turning around.

Ali spotted a round-leaf orchid on the return walk.  There was no spike, but the leaves were still a fun find.

It was time for an ice cream visit to Mung's.

 

1 June 2021 Avenging a DNF

 I was headed to Cortland for business and decided to stop for another attempt to find an older multi-cache.  The geocache is at Sullivanville Dam recreation area.  I have visited before but not found this cache.  Today I was determined to make the find.  The first three stages were realtively easy.  The third stage left me blind with a heavily worn tag.  I had enough information to have some idea of where the final might be, but spent a long time muddling through finding the final.

I usually have no idea of how to identify different types of these, but the yellow spots say this is a common whitetail.  It was near one of the stages and spent a lot of time around me while I was looking.

A great blue heron was out looking for a meal.

I spent a long time looking in this area trying to decide which of the possible numbers was written on the weathered stage.

Ah, that moment when you know the cache hiding spot has been found.

I celebrated the find with black raspberry.

31 May 2021 Visiting Tanbark Trail

 We were locked out of PA in 2020 so we missed our hike along the Tanbark Trail.  This year we were able to return so we were happy to take this favorite hike.  We try to time the hike so we can see painted trilliums in bloom.  This year we were a week or two later so we knew we might be too late.

Starflower is usually a good indication there will still be painted trilliums in bloom.  It wasn't a good omen today.

The clintonia was past time for blooming, but there didn't appear to have been a blossoms this year.  As long as the plants are here there's hope for blossoms next year.

There were still signs of spent blossoms from the rose twisted stalk.  We were happy to see the plants are still present.

It was a very pleasant walk.  Hopefully, we can make the hike again next year and see the painted trilliums in bloom.

30 May 2021 Spring Outing

We started the day with a visit to an ANF trail alongside Brown Run.

The trail is a dirt forest road, but the stream is scenic.  We were hoping for more wildflowers, but happy to see starflower in bloom.

We also spotted a smooth carillon flower.  We have one that always returns at our home, but they are an interesting find in the wild.  They are also difficult to capture in an image.  This one was near to blooming.

Our first venture over to Brown Run yielded a nice salamander sighting stream side.

Our next stop was along th boat launch area.  Birding here can be good.  Today we both saw an eagle, but I missed the image.  A few ducks also passed our way.  I finally captured a cedar waxwing within a small group.

While Ali was chatting with new cachers who happened to be at the same cache, I spotted a few megansers on the far shore.

I always enjoy the very short walk through the woods trail at the Kinzua Dam area.  Despite all the dam visitors, this rarely has more than a few visitors.

Our last stop was at Anders Run.  We've made this an annual stop to look for orchids.  We found them, but unlike most years, there were very few.  We were happy for the sighting.

29 May 2021 Wet Holiday Weekend Start

 We were in Pennsylvania for the holiday weekend.  It was a wet start with hope for drier weather as the weekend moved forward.

Our stream was running quickly.  The banks were lined with spring wildflowers including mayapple leaves.

26 May 2021 Snapping Turtle

 There are usually a few turtles in the pond at the office.  Today's snapping turtle roaming the parking lot was a first sighting for me.  It was the end of the day so I let it move on as it wanted rather than trying to pick it up to move it.

23 May 2021 Finzel Swamp and Home

 

We first visited Finzel Swamp in 2019 to find a geocache.  On that first visit the path back was filled with warblers on either side of the trail.  This was our first visit in the spring.

Our bird sightings were not as exciting or plentiful as that first visit, but Ali did spot a northern water snake lounging in a tree above the water.

An invasive red-eared slider was in the pond nearest the parking area.

I really like South Park in Pittsburgh.  I really hate driving in Pittsburgh.  We have made a few visits here and returned this afternoon for a few older caches we hadn't found,  The caching was great and included spotting a fawn near one of the hides.  The driving was terrible.  I finally decided I couldn't stand any more of it.  Even driving the park is not fun.