A Perfect Day

What a perfect Summer day! Blue skies and puffy clouds, warm and almost hot but dry rather than humid. A great day for being outdoors! I had walked up to the Shippensburg Township Recreational Park for the annual SHAPE Gallery Solstice Arts Festival. Unfortunately, the "festival" was a major disappointment, definitely not what I was expecting. But all was not lost; the park also serves as the Shippensburg trailhead for the Cumberland Valley Rail Trail, which you long-term visitors to this blog know is a favorite hike for me. So I just walked up to the trail and did a walk up to Duncan Road and back. And of course I got some pictures of farms, mountains and clouds along the way. Enjoy!

A view of The Knob, part of the North Mountain ridge

Farms, mountains, and clouds - Summer in the Cumberland Valley

A typical Cumberland Valley view

Another, wider view of The Knob

A large farm along the Rail Trail

My first vacation week (actually 9 days) is coming up in the middle of July, and one of those days I intend to use to hike the whole trail, all the way up to Newville and back. So stay tuned!

© 2016 by A. Roy Hilbinger 

Under Cover

Another walk in the woods, this time on the undeveloped end of the Rail Trail. Very serene and calm, and very, very green.

© 2016 by A. Roy Hilbinger 

Three Elements

I took a walk yesterday with Earth, Air, and Water. Not Fire, though; the temperatures were quite moderate, with a delightful breeze to make it even better.

Yes, the sky really was that blue!

A juvenile male Baltimore Oriole in the Dykeman Spring wetland

The creek running through the wetland

On the banks of the north duck pond

Walking up the Upland Trail

More wispy clouds in the blue, blue sky

The season's first haying continues on the upland meadow

© 2016 by A. Roy Hilbinger 

A Day-Off Ramble in the Park

Today was the perfect early Summer day - warm but not hot, sunny, gorgeous blue sky with the occasional wispy cloud, a nice breeze, and no humidity. I had the day off, so what could I do but ramble through the Dykeman Spring Nature Park and take in the perfect day.

Walking in the woods on the Dykeman Walking Trail

A big ol' Snapping Turtle laying low in the Dykeman Spring wetland

Bindweed in the wetland area

A young Northern Water Snake along the creek in the wetland

A Spring Azure butterfly on White Clover up in the meadow

Daisy Fleabane in the upland meadow

It finally dried out enough to start the first haying of the season

A male Baltimore Oriole at the edge of the meadow

A young Groundhog on the Meadow Trail

Cinquefoil along the Meadow Trail

© 2016 by A. Roy Hilbinger 

A Damp Summer Morning

June 1 marks the start of meteorological Summer. We're now three days in and the weather has definitely been summery, and very damp as well. It rained last night, was very steamy and misty in the morning, and then some rain again in the late afternoon. A walk through the Dykeman Spring Nature Park this morning shows the result of all that warmth and humidity.

Ox-eye Daisies along the Dykeman Walking Trail

Papa and fledgeling Red-winged Blackbirds in the Dykeman Spring wetland

A Painted Turtle in the Dykeman Spring wetland

Yellow Hawkweed in the park's upland meadow

The Deptford Pinks are sprouting up in the upland meadow

A Silver-spotted Skipper in the upland meadow

© 2016 by A. Roy Hilbinger 

Approaching Summer

It's Memorial Day weekend, the unofficial start of Summer, and we've had very Summer-like weather lately, including the season's first official heat wave (three days of temperatures at 90º [32º C] or above) and a tropical storm moving up the East Coast. I took a walk in the Dykeman Spring Nature Park yesterday to look at the signs of approaching Summer; here are the highlights.

The Multiflora Roses are blooming profusely and making the park smell wonderful

There are lots more Blackberry blooms like these; it looks to be a plentiful crop this year

Mama Red-winged Blackboard making sure I'm not a threat

Yellow Wood Sorrel is springing up all over the park

The grass in the upland meadow is chest high; time for the year's first haying

© 2016 by A. Roy Hilbinger 

A Walk In the Woods

“Come to the woods, for here is rest. There is no repose like that of the green deep woods. Sleep in forgetfulness of all ill.”  ― John Muir

© 2016 by A. Roy Hilbinger 

This Morning's Walk

I went for a nature walk in the Dykeman Spring Nature Park again this morning. We're in the midst of yet another stretch of overcast, damp, misty, drizzly, and slightly cooler than normal weather, yet the greening and blooming is going full blast. So are the bird migrations. The Orioles are back; several were singing away high in the forest canopy, and I saw a couple here and there flitting around outside camera range. The migrating Warblers are also here, heard but mostly unseen; they're small birds and hard to see when the foliage is full. I heard a couple of Yellow Warblers, plus several indistinguishable Warbler calls, and one Black and White Warbler who landed on a branch next to me but took off again before I could raise the camera.

I did manage to capture three birds. The Brown Thrasher is in the Mockingbird family, but where the Mockingbird repeats each song it imitates three times, the Thrasher only repeats it twice. And the two Sandpipers were very interesting. The Spotted Sandpiper is native to the area, and even though Sandpipers are mostly identified with the seashore, there are inland Sandpipers, and this is one of them. The Solitary Sandpiper is a different story, though. It, too is an inland, freshwater bird, but it winters in Central America and summers in the Arctic tundra. Right now they're migrating north and can often be seen resting by streams and pools; this is one of them, making it a rare sighting. Whee!

A Brown Thrasher singing away by the Dykeman Walking Trail

Dame's Rocket growing along the Dykeman Walking Trail

The forest floor along the Dykeman Walking Trail

Philadelphia Fleabane in the Dykeman Spring wetland

A Solitary Sandpiper on the creek in the Dykeman Spring wetland

A Spotted Sandpiper by the north duck pond

© 2016 by A. Roy Hilbinger 

May Flowers

Sweet April showers

Do spring May flowers.

– Thomas Tusser

Ground Ivy

Sweet May hath come to love us,

Flowers, trees, their blossoms don;

And through the blue heavens above us

The very clouds move on.

– Heinrich Heine

White Campion

Among the changing months, May stands confest

The sweetest, and in fairest colors dressed.

– James Thomson

Dame's Rocket

Hebe's here, May is here!

The air is fresh and sunny;

And the miser-bees are busy

Hoarding golden honey.

– Thomas Bailey

Honeysuckle

What potent blood hath modest May.

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

Swamp Buttercups

Never yet was a springtime, when the buds forgot to bloom.

– Margaret Elizabeth Sangster

Celandine

Photos © 2016 by A. Roy Hilbinger