• Category Archives nature journal
  • A look at the natural world, nature writing but mostly photoblogging.

  • A Change Of Plans

    My duets got canceled yesterday, and Anne’s meeting got postponed, so we decided to drive up to Hawk Mountain Sanctuary for a hike. We got up there about 11:00, bought memberships so we can go hiking there more often — three visits and the membership pays for itself — and then we did a nice two-hour walk from overlook to overlook. Most of the hiking was pretty easy, but there was one path (the Escarpment Trail) which involved a bit of scrambling so we did get in our adventure exercise. Some photos:

    It was a beautiful, brisk winter day. There were a few others out too, including a volunteer hawk counter at one overlook. He clued us in on what we could see there, but even though we did see one eagle and a northern harrier — they were specks to me, even with binoculars — he told us the raptor migration is pretty much over for the season. (He also explained to us why there was a fake owl in a nearby tree: smaller hawks would attack it in the daytime while they had it at a relative disadvantage, thus coming closer to the overlook for easier observation.) We said our goodbyes, and hiked off to check out some of the other trails and overlooks he told us about.

    After our hike we got lunch at a little general store outside New Tripoli, a place one of the rangers had told us about. A very pleasant day!

    (Today we’re both fighting colds…)


  • I, Naturalist

    Posted on by Don

    Say hello to my little friend:

    I saw this beauty on our porch last night and took some pictures. It might not be obvious from my photos but this guy was over an inch long, slightly larger than a cicada, and in person it looked like a cross between a scarab and a nightmare. The iNaturalist app informs me that it’s a “Reddish-Brown Stag Beetle” (Lucanus capreolus), probably an adult male. They are native to the area, attracted to lights at night and not that uncommon, but this is the first one I’ve ever seen.


  • Walkabout

    Anne’s been gone all week, in Denver helping Emmi with Iris while Kyle came here to do some real estate transactions. He went home Friday, and I’ve been living the bachelor life this weekend. I’m right now waiting for Anne’s much-delayed flight to arrive; I’ve got a little time to kill so here’s another post…

    These are some pictures I took on a walk a few weeks ago. I was just rambling around, on Sand Island and across the Lehigh bridges, no special agenda but I did get a few nice photos, mostly of the river and of Monocacy Creek.


  • Autumn Leaves

    Nothing much to say here, I just thought I’d drop a few photos from the last day or so to show the fall colors. Last night our neighbors had a “roasted root” party, cooking potatoes, parsnips etc in their backyard fire pit, and today is the Halloween Parade; we’ll be doing a bike ride in costume beforehand. Fall is definitely here…


  • Wild Kingdom

    I was at Shawnee last week, and got to spend time with a fox:

    It was pretty close to me, and seemed a little too accustomed to people. Rabies? Semi-tame? Stealing food and raiding garbage cans? I don’t know, but apparently it had been in the area for a while and was thriving, which kind of tells me it’s not rabid, or poisoning itself with “people food.” So, good!

    I also got some video of it catching dinner:

    A few evenings later I saw a family of deer cutting across the back lawn, probably spooked by outdoor events and trying to find a human-free path out of the area:

    I also saw a bald eagle last week, at the Nesquehoning Trestle outside Jim Thorpe, but none of my pictures were any good. Still, quite a week!


  • Florissant Fossil Beds

    Posted on by Don

    Our trip today was up into the mountains, out near Cripple Creek to the Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument. This was a place where, 34 million years ago, a lake/creek area was buried by volcanic activity — all these giant redwoods were buried to about 15 feet or so, and what was buried got fossilized while what was above rotted away. (All sorts of other plants, as well as fish, insects, and small mammals, were fossilized as well.) Fast forward to about 50 years ago, and this area was saved from development and the national monument was born…

    This was a really fun and spectacularly beautiful way to spend the day, and afterward we stopped for a late lunch on the way home.

    This is our last night in Colorado Springs; tomorrow we head back up to Denver for the final leg of our trip.


  • Garden of the Gods

    Posted on by Don

    Greetings from Colorado Springs!

    We got here Sunday, and did a little bit of walking around Monday, but things got real yesterday when we got up early and explored The Garden of the Gods. This is a spectacular park (and National Natural Landmark) on the edge of town, which features the same kind of up-tilted sandstone formations we saw near Red Rock. There really isn’t much of a narrative here, we just walked around, admiring the views and and taking pictures:

    Right about that last photo is where I somehow managed to change my camera settings to a sort of “focus” effect, which made these last few a bit odd but hey, these are the photos I got:

    And finally, one last shot of Pike’s Peak, from our table at the pub where we had lunch:

    Pike’s Peak From Our Lunch Table

  • Ida, High And Mighty

    We went down to Sand Island, to look at the flooding we got after Wednesday’s heavy rain. This was the aftermath of Hurricane Ida, and though we got a lot of rain, maybe five inches or so, it was an all day affair — I’ve seen more shocking results from a heavy thunderstorm, at least in our neighborhood. The sheer volume though, of the rain that fell everywhere around here, made the situation with the rivers a very different story….

    The Lehigh, when we saw it at Sand Island, was running high; it was almost over its banks, and was running vigorously, almost angrily, and fast. The canal had overflowed onto the island and was pouring down into the river, but if the river were another foot or two higher that flow would have reversed. There was everywhere a sense of overwhelming power, unleashed and rushing past.

    (The Monocacy Creek was also flooding, but I’ve seen it worse — it goes up fast and comes down fast.)

    The last two photos are at the confluence of the Lehigh with the Delaware in Easton. Normally there is a 10 foot high waterfall at this spot, where the Lehigh goes over a dam, but yesterday it was invisible, except for a scary line of whirlpools that kept forming and disappearing.


  • Brood X

    I finally got to see the cicadas this week. I’d been on several rides recently looking for them (including one ride up to Blue Ponds in Jim Thorpe — strangely early even for the mountain laurel), but no dice. Then on Wednesday I did a road ride in the hills south of town, and they were everywhere. They were loud enough while I was riding that you’d have to shout to be heard over them, and I stopped once or twice just to watch them fly around.

    Anne and I did another hill ride yesterday with a few friends in the same general area. Again, they were everywhere and maybe more numerous than the other day, even landing on us when we stopped for ice cream.

    So that’s one thing off this summer’s bucket list, though I do expect to check them out a few more times before they are gone.