Nature
A Cloudy And Cool April Fool’s Day With Some Cool Critters In The Susquehanna Wetlands.
Friday was another cloudy and cool day here in Northeastern Pennsylvania. It was the 1st day of April and Nature was playing an April Fool’s joke on us again with the cold weather. Since our local Weis grocery market closed due to a fire, I have been grocery shopping in the Weis Market in Berwick,…
Read MoreA Hike On The Lehigh Canal At Weissport: No Wood Ducks But A Lot Of Fishermen, A Few Birds And Beautiful Scenery
After my visit to the Susquehanna Wetlands on Friday, where I saw so many critters, including some elusive wood ducks, I decided to hike along the Lehigh Canal in Weissport in Carbon County on Saturday. I made this decision because I had seen wood ducks here before. In fact some of my most beautiful photos…
Read MoreSpring Is Slowly Springing At Community Park In Hazle Township.
After some nice Spring-like weather in mid-March it got cold again. We had some record breaking cold temperatures here in Northeastern Pennsylvania. Because of the cold weather I didn’t take my afternoon hikes in the Community Park near my home here in Hazle Towsnhip for a couple of weeks. I returned this past Monday. The…
Read MoreTurtles, Cormorants And A Kestrel, But An Otherwise Uneventful Hike In the Susquehanna Wetlands
I’m sorry, but this blog post doesn’t have the wide variety of wildlife I saw at the Susquehanna Wetlands in Luzerne County on my hike last week. It was an amazing hike last Friday.. I saw so many cool critters. Not this week , and, it was partially my fault, I rushed my hike in…
Read MoreAnother Hike On The Scenic And Historic Walnutport Canal Spur Trail
I decided to hike on the Walnutport Canal Spur Trail in Lehigh County again on Sunday. It was cloudy and a cold 32 degrees at my home in Luzerne County. The radar showed some rain was moving in from the northwest. So I headed 35 miles southeast to Walnutport hoping to stay ahead of the…
Read MoreBats, Bees, Horned Grebes, Frog Eggs And Other Cool Stuff At Our Local Community Park.
I have always enjoyed walking and exploring the outdoors. I remember my first hikes in the strip mined woodlands with my dad searching for wild mushrooms. I may have been three years old. My dad developed, and continued to encourage my curiosity in, and love for nature. He would also take me and my siblings …
Read MoreA Lot Of Birds, Some Turtles And A Snake At The Susquehanna Wetlands And River Lands
I returned to the Susquehanna Wetlands and River Lands in Salem Township Luzerne County on Friday. This Friday however, I arrived early, around 8:15 a.m. and met a photographer friend. It was mostly sunny but a chilly 40 degrees when we began our hike. We first walked down to the Susquehanna River hoping to see…
Read MoreAn Easter Morning Hike Through The Scenic And Historic Lehigh Gap.
For most of my life I would spend Easter morning at my parents house. As a child, after attending Mass , we always ate our first meal on Easter Sunday from the Easter basket that was filled with traditional Polish foods and blessed on Holy Saturday. We would then eat chocolate candy the Easter bunny…
Read MoreMy First Visit To Fort Washington State Park In Montgomery County
Fort Washington State Park in Montgomery County wasn’t my first choice for a visit this past weekend. I had originally planned to hike at Codorus State Park in York County. It was rated the third best bird watching spot in Pennsylvania by one of the State birding groups. I was looking forward to staying in…
Read MoreA Crow And Bald Eagle Fight , Palm Warblers And Snow: A Magical Afternoon At Community Park.
It was one of those spur of the moment decisions. It was cloudy and cold when I decided I wasn’t going to hike at the Community Park near my home in Luzerne County that afternoon. A late Spring snow storm had just deposited almost 5 inches of wet snow on our area. Most of the…
Read MoreA Cloudy And Dreary Morning Hike in Fort Washington State Park.
I was hoping to observe, and photograph, some migratory song birds on my first visit to Fort Washington State Park. My hopes were somewhat dashed when I got up early Saturday morning to cloudy skies and light rain in the forecast. I wasn’t going to sit in my hotel room, so after a couple of…
Read MoreSpring Flowers, Song Birds And Sunshine On A Sunday Morning In The Susquehanna Wetlands.
After my visit to Fort Washington State Park last Friday, I returned to the Susquehanna Wetlands in Salem Township Luzerne County last Sunday. It was a chilly 45 degrees when I arrived. But it is Spring and I found many flowers blooming and song birds singing on my usual five mile hike. It was a…
Read MoreBirds, Blossoms And Blue Sky At The Canal In Walnutport in Northampton County
I returned to the peaceful and scenic Walnutport Canal Spur Trail for a hike on Saturday. And, for the record, the quaint town of Walnutport is located in Northampton County, not Lehigh County, as I stated in my previous blog post. A reader corrected me, and please, I am an amateur at this so please…
Read MoreBlue Skies, Brilliant April Sunshine But Some Cold Canadian Air At The Susquehanna Wetlands.
The skies were a deep blue and there was brilliant April sunshine when I returned to the Susquehanna Wetlands in Luzerne County on Friday afternoon. However, it was cold, the temperatures were in the mid 40’s with a strong northwesterly wind. The wind made it feel much colder. It felt more like a day in…
Read MoreA Lovely First Day Of May At Leaser Lake In Lehigh County.
I returned to scenic Leaser Lake, nestled below the Blue Mountain in Lehigh County last Sunday. It was just my second visit. It was a beautiful start to the month of May. It was a bit chilly with temperatures in the mid 40’s. The skies were mostly clear and the strong May sun soon warmed…
Read MoreGoslings, A Bald Eagle And Tadpoles: It’s Spring At Community Park
One of my favorite sights every Spring is the appearance of the Canada geese goslings on our lakes and ponds here in Northeastern Pennsylvania. This year my first sighting of these fuzzy balls of downy feathers was two weeks ago on a hike at the local Community Park near my home in Luzerne County. It…
Read MoreA Magical Mother’s Day Morning In May That Ends With A Morel Or Two
I awoke early on Sunday. I had a busy morning planned. My Facebook page reminded me it was Mother’s Day. I shared a post and this photos of my mom as a child. She didn’t know her mom long, she died when she was ten, not long after this photo was taken. This is mom…
Read MoreBlue Skies, Sunshine And Some Critters At Community Park.
These past few weeks we had a lot of clouds and rain here in Northeastern Pennsylvania. Not this week. We had clear blue skies and sunshine for three days in a row. On Thursday. some cumulus clouds formed in the blue skies. It was still a bit cool on Monday afternoon, when I took my…
Read MoreThe Wetlands Are Alive With Lush New Growth And The Songs Of Birds.
I wasn’t sure if I was going to take my now routine hike in the Susquehanna Wetlands in Luzerne County on Friday afternoon. There was rain in the forecast. The skies were cloudy and threatening. However, I still had to do my grocery shopping at the Weis market in Berwick. I have been shopping there…
Read MoreSpring Visitors At The Greater Hazleton Rails To Trails, I Hope Some Of Them Stay
Rain was in the forecast again last Saturday here in Northeastern Pennsylvania. It was cloudy with a light drizzle when I decided to hike on the local Rails to Trails near my home in Hazle Township, Luzerne County. I wasn’t expecting to take photos on my hike because of the rain. I took my camera…
Read MoreNo Bears But A Lot Of Migratory Birds And A Snake At The State Game Lands in Dennison Township
After my hikes on Friday and Saturday I knew the migratory birds were passing through our woodlands here in Northeastern Pennsylvania. I was looking forward to my Sunday hike to try and see and photograph some more of these beautiful long distance travelers. The question was, where? I haven’t seen a black bear this Spring.…
Read MoreFog, Summer Heat And Some Critters At The Susquehanna Wetlands In Salem Township.
The forecast called for sunshine and record high temperatures here in Northeastern Pennsylvania on Saturday. I was up early and headed to the Susquehanna Wetlands in Salem Township in Luzerne County. It was sunny at my home in Hazle Township. I drove the 20 miles to the wetlands expecting clear skies but instead I found…
Read MoreMay Is A Great Month To Hike On The Greater Hazleton Rails To Trail
Last week I decided to hike the local Greater Hazleton Rails to Trail near my home in Luzerne County. It was dreary and overcast but I was surprised with the amount and variety of migrating song birds I saw on my five mile hike. There were birds fluttering in the trees all along the trail.…
Read MoreSpring Green, Critters And Flowers At Community Park In Hazle Township
I was able to get in a hike every afternoon after work this past week at the Community Park near my home in Hazle Township Luzerne County. For those of you who are first time viewers of my blog, there are a lot of blog posts about this wonderful park and it’s history. You can…
Read MoreA Rainy And Wet Walk In The Susquehanna Wetlands And An Encounter With A Mommy Snapping Turtle
It was another Saturday with rain in the forecast here in Luzerne County in Northeastern Pennsylvania. Last Saturday I avoided the rain. Not this week. I drove to the Susquehanna Wetlands in Salem Township because my interpretation of the radar maps led me to believe the rain would miss this area. I was wrong. It…
Read MoreI’m Getting To Really Like Beautiful Leaser Lake In Lehigh County
I decided to hike around Leaser Lake in Lehigh County again last Sunday. This was my third visit to this lake at the foot of the Blue Mountain near the Schuylkill and Lehigh County border. It is about the same distance form my home in Luzerne County as is my favorite hiking trail in the…
Read MoreEurope Day Four: Budapest Hungary. Exploring Margaret Island And Shoes On The Danube.
I slept eleven hours my first night in Budapest. I was refreshed when I awoke at 7 a.m. and decided to walk to Margaret Island located on the Danube River. I only decided to make this trip ten days in advance of my flight so I did not have time to research the history of…
Read MoreEurope Day Five. Exploring The Streets And Neighborhoods Of Budapest
I awoke Saturday, my second morning in Budapest, to find a heavy rain falling. The rain continued for a few hours so I had a good breakfast at the hotel, drank some coffee and edited some photos. Around 9 a.m. the rains ended. The skies were still cloudy and threatening as I left the…
Read MoreBack In The Woods Of Northeastern Pennsylvania. I Missed Them, Especially The Susquehanna Wetlands
I returned to beautiful Northeastern Pennsylvania on Saturday, after a trip to Hungary and Slovakia, ( it was a last minute trip with the hope of finding the villages of two of my great great grandparents, you can read about it in my blog archives if you want to learn more). On Sunday, despite the…
Read MoreEurope Day Six: Hungary To Slovakia. A Scenic And Informative Three Hour Drive With A Stop In Historic Holloko
After my Sunday morning walk I had breakfast at the Hilton Hotel in Budapest, Hungary, packed and checked out of my hotel at 10 a.m. I was leaving Hungary and my driver , Marek was waiting to transport me to the Slovakian city of Kosice. I would stay here for five days, hoping to find…
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