In Fall I often head a few miles North to the 2nd Mountain Hawkwatch to see the migrating raptors cruising along the Appalachian ridges. Recently it's been clear blue skies which makes it difficult to see the birds and even if someone has them in the bins, trying to steer someone else onto them with only a clear blue sky for a reference is difficult to say the least. Wednesday was windy and about 50% cloud cover so free from my house elf duties I took myself up to have a look. It wasn't great, several of the local Bald Eagles and Red-tailed Hawks along with a few other raptors and Ravens but unfortunately all pretty distant to get any photographs. I took a few scenic shots instead and on the way home I stopped at Memorial Lake and took a few more.
Saturday we did a tour of some of the Historic Barns in and around Gettysburg. I never realized the Battlefield area was so big and although I've been once before I'm going to have to come back again.
Round Barn
Biglerville
Used for Weddings and Events these days
Round Barn
internal structure
Guernsey Country Club Barn
Biglerville
restored and used for weddings and events
Nice Dead Tree
Flower Garden
Rummel Barn
Gettysburg
used as a field hospital during the battle in 1863
Stone farm house
one of the cannons of the Army of Northern Virginia
McIntire Barn Farmhouse
Gettyburg
McIntire Barn
McIntire Barn Farmhouse
Three Springs Farm Barn
Biglerville
At all of the barns were a variety of exhibits and displays of barn constuction, making nails, apples, making ice cream with an old John Deere tractor, how to sharpen a scythe and an exhibit of Civil War weapons and uniforms and day to day food ration for both armies.
While we get Turkey and Black Vultures in the yard all the time this is the first time one has visited the upper deck. I better not stand still for too long!
..... since I posted anything. No excuses other than senility I suppose. One of the advantages of keeping loads of images on disk is that you can delve into the archive of past photographic adventures. I know I once said I'd never go up to Ricketts Glen again because it's all too easy to break something, whether it's camera gear or myself, it really is dodgy. However I do miss going up there in the fall.
I spent a while outside yesterday power washing a years worth of grime and tree pollen off the upper deck along with a million Hickory Nut fragments that the squirrels are dropping from the Hickory Tree growing through the deck. There's a couple of Blue Mist Flowers in big half barrels on the deck which the butterflies, bee's and assorted bugs just love. I spent a few minutes with the 70-200 lens taking a few shots,
Following on from the previous post of the Timber Rattler and watching where you're walking and sitting, it certainly applies doubly so this time of year. I love arachnids ....... from a distance, I scream like a little girl if one of these is crawling on my shoulder.
Web
Marbled Orb Weaver
Black and Yellow Garden Spider
Black and Yellow Garden Spider
Probably about 20 years ago I was on my tractor loaded with grass cuttings to dump on my compost heap at the top of the yard when I rode through this large golden web. Next day doing the same thing I remembered the web and stopped short and the web had been repaired but this time the weaver was sitting right in the middle of it. It was gorgeous but huge, about 4 inches with the legs. I looked through my books and did an online search for Pennsylvania Spiders without finding her. I went into the library in Hershey and eventuallly found her. She was a Golden Silk Orb Weaver or Banana Spider. The range map indicated that North Carolina was the nearest they had been found and that is 400 miles away. I called a naturalist aquaintence and he was extremely skeptical until I sent a photograph, he then put me in touch with an entomologist lady from the Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster. She came to see Charlotte as I had named her and was amazed that she was so far from the normal range. She came back with a National Geographic Photographer to document the discovery. She even contacted a local TV station to visit for a weekly wildlife spot but the weather intervened with a hurricane on the way before it could be finalized. She mentioned that she had an empty Orb Weaver exhibit at the college and woud love to give Charlotte a safe home and as I didn't want her to be squished by falling branches I agreed it was for the best. A few weeks later Kelly and I went to see her in her new home and she was even bigger. I can't find any of my photos but here's a YouTube video.
Over the last week or so the number of Monarch Butterflies has picked up enormously, It seems everywhere I look there's a couple of Monarchs chasing each other. Some of the Milkweeds are already stripped of leaves where the Monarch caterpillars have been chomping away. I had a few minutes outside around lunchtime to take a few shots of the Monarchs.
