Trailside Sights

A last set of pictures from the York Rail Trail hike we took last weekend:

I was surprised to see turtles hanging out on a branch in the stream. One hopped down before I could get this shot off. This was at full zoom, crouched on the ground, shooting under a bush, so it is not the best :)

Some remnants of last autumn's berries. Guess the birds missed these.

And finally, a tree root growing down through a rock outcropping.

Stop by tomorrow for something of a surprise!

Howard Tunnel

Howard Tunnel is supposedly the oldest railroad tunnel in the country that has been continuously in use. It says it on a signpost, so it must be true :) I believe the only train that still runs on this track is a scenic one for tourists, and it doesn't run very often. This rails to trails project is fairly unique in that the rails are in place and occasionally used!

The tunnel is roughly 300 feet long, and the interior is lined with bricks. Stones set into the walls proclaim that it was first constructed in 1840 and rebuilt with stone facings in 1866. I find it very weird to be able to see through the ridgeline!

This shot shows the brick surface of the barrel-shaped roof of the tunnel, along with the moss and other accumulations over the years. In several places small stalactites have formed. I guess its the calcium in the mortar that seeps through.

Rails, Trails, & Puppy Dog Tails

Yesterday was a beautifully sunny day, and temperatures were in the 60s. With winter lingering on, days like this are literally breaths of fresh air. All sorts were out enjoying the fine weather:


The little guy's parents were close by, just out of the frame. I'm not sure every dog in the world would have the temperament to ride so peacefully, but this one was having a great time.


These pictures are from the York Heritage Rail Trail County Park. The trail runs from York city to the Maryland line, stretching over 20 miles. We followed about 3.5 miles of it. I'll be posting some more from our jaunt in the days to come.

Misfired

I thought I was taking a picture of some geese, but that's not really what I ended up with.

I still kinda like the result :)

Duck, Duck, GOOSE!

Forgive me if I seem a little goose-crazy lately :)

These geese weren't far away and didn't seem to care that I was taking an interest in them. I tried to grab a few pics from "goose level" and this is the best of that bunch. I like how the eye is drawn to the alert goose in the middle.

Now these geese were further away, but I took this picture out of the car window, so I cannot complain :) I like this picture for several reasons: the guy up front has his wings spread, the geese in the background are coming in for a landing, and the "blue phase" snow goose that you can see just to the right of middle has its head tucked back over its shoulder. Honestly, I was just trying to get a picture of the blue goose, the other activities were bonuses :)


And here's another shot of part of the flock. Some are milling around in a small pond, but most are just hanging out in the field. There were lots of geese on this little scrap of water, but none on the larger pond just across the road. Maybe they liked the shallow depth? If I had raised the camera just a little higher, you'd be able to see folks walking along the trail just behind this group of birds.

I have one more goose picture to share, but I'll hold out on that one. Its really more of a misfire anyway :)

In Flight

This is the short clip I promised in my last post. I wasn't taping when the geese first took flight, but I was looking right at them, and I still wonder how that many geese decided to take off at the same moment.

Please let me know if the video isn't functioning properly.

ETA: I tested it out on my own computer, and I apologize, the video is very grainy, which makes it hard to see the birds! But if you have your sound turned on, you can still hear them talking :)

Migration

I was at Middle Creek this weekend, too, although not at the same time as Dad. His post has some good general information on the geese, and awesome photographs of them. The gathering of snow geese was in full swing on Sunday. I saw an estimate on the Game Commission's website that figured there were upwards of 50,000 geese in the area.

At one point, an entire hillside of geese "erupted" and took flight, going a short distance to a nearby field and congregating there. A small portion of the monster flock is landing in the picture above. I will post a short video of the goose explosion in my next post.

To contrast, here is one lonely goose, making his or her way across a small pond. This one was quite close, and like a lot of the other geese, showed little concern about the people "flocking" to see them :)

Reflections & Patterns at Double Trouble

My previous post gave some general information on Double Trouble State Park in New Jersey. Here's a few of the more "artistic" shots I got at Double Trouble.

The surface water in the Pinelands is usually a dark, clear, brown due to staining from the tannin in the pine needles on the ground. It is usually very pure water, but it has an odd color. The dark water is excellent for capturing reflections, like the one above.

It looked like the park was planning on adding new sign posts to its trail system. These were lined up along one side of a maintenance shed.

The bogs were also partially frozen. I liked how the ice broke up the reflection of the pines on the water's side.

This is a close-up. Flowing water was welling up between gaps in the thin ice, as the wind pushed small waves toward the frozen end of the bog.

Double Trouble in New Jersey

No, I didn't get into any trouble :) We visited Double Trouble State Park last weekend. Double Trouble is in the Pinelands area of New Jersey. The Pinelands are very different from the heavy industry and thousands of homes that most people think of when they think "Jersey." Double Trouble is the name of a very small town that is now deserted, but was once devoted to mining, then lumbering, then cranberrying. Several bogs still exist and are harvested by the State.

A small group of mallards was enjoying the shallow water of the bog. The reddish vegetation is cranberry plants.


This is the view looking from the cranberry packing shed down across three bogs:


And here is a close up of the plants themselves. You can still see a few berries hanging around.

We learned that the cranberry plants are grown in bogs that are flooded in the fall, which eases the harvest because the berries float to the top. The water is kept in the bogs through winter to protect the plants from frost. These bogs are still worked more as a cultural aspect of the state park, but large commercial growers have bogs in the area, too. As you drive through the Pinelands, you can see large collections of these bogs, interspersed with lots of pines, and large fields of blueberries. I need to come back to this area during harvest time!

Some catching up to do ...

I have been having too much fun lately, and not doing enough blogging. So now, I have a backlog!

These are from one of our recent ice storms. I went in to work late that day, to avoid the worst of the mess, and took my camera with me. I have to walk about two and a half blocks from where I park to the building where I work, and I snapped these picks along the way.

This is part of a church spire. I've always wanted to get "winter" pictures of this church, because I thought the white stone accents on the church would look great with snow on the ground. But ice on the trees seems to work well, too :)

I posted two other photographs from this storm here. Hopefully, we can leave the ice and snow behind now that March has found us.