Birds!

It's still chilly in the mornings, but Spring is advancing nonetheless and the Spring and Summer birds are starting to show up and the year-round residents are molting into their Summer finery. Walking through the Dykeman Spring Nature Park on the way to the grocery store this morning I heard and saw a greater variety now that the season is setting in. The songs of Cardinals, Redwinged Blackbirds, Song Sparrows, Eastern Towhees, White-throated Sparrows, and Nuthatches made a gorgeous chorus in the woods and the wetlands. I was patiently waiting for a White-throated Sparrow, a male Eastern Towhee, and a White-breasted Nuthatch to settle down long enough to get a shot, but no luck. I did manage to catch a Song Sparrow and a male Eastern Bluebird, though, as well as a shot of some sleeping Mallard drakes. 

Back home, I've switched the food in my feeder station in an attempt to get rid of the crowds of House Sparrows who had taken over the place and kept a variety of other birds at bay. I seem to have been mostly successful; I'm using seed and nut mixes that don't have millet in them, and include safflower seed, which House Sparrows hate. So now I'm getting a multitude of Finches (House and Gold) as well as Nuthatches, Chickadees, Blue Jays, and Cardinals, as well as a Redwinged Blackbird the other day. I'm also making my own suet these days in hopes of drawing more Woodpeckers and Wrens, and hopefully a Bluebird or two.

In any case, here are the birds I managed to capture with the lens today, both in the woods and at the feeder station. Enjoy!

A Song Sparrow singing away in the Dykeman Spring wetland

A pair of Mallard drakes sleep-drifting on the north duck pond

A male Eastern Bluebird along the upland Trail in the Dykeman Spring Nature Park

Goldfinches and House Finches at the tower feeder

A male Goldfinch at the tower feeder

A Blue Jay chowing down at the flat feeder

© 2016 by A. Roy Hilbinger 

Spring Is Progressing... Sort Of

To all appearances Spring is moving right along; flowering trees are blooming, leaves and grass are greening the landscape, and flowers are blooming in the local gardens. But the weather seems to be saying the opposite. In March we had May weather, but now in April we're getting March weather - freezing nights, blustery winds, and threats of frost and snow. The blooming and greening occurs because of the angle and intensity of the Sun now that it's passed north of the equator, but that blooming and greening is threatened by the freezes and the snow. Here's hoping everything survives the next week or so!

Branch Creek at King St.; despite the green and the blooming Forsythia, the temperature was a chilly 37º F

Fungus on a burned tree trunk along the Dykeman Walking Trail

A male Redwinged Blackbird in the Dykeman Spring wetland. I'm wondering if he's regretting having come north too early!

The creek in the Dykeman Spring wetland, all greened up for the season

© 2016 by A. Roy Hilbinger 

Walking the Rails

After all the seasonably warm weather lately, suddenly last night Winter came back with blustery winds and cold temperatures. The walk to the grocery store today was kept to places that weren't exposed to the full force of the wind, so I decided this was a good excuse to walk along the railroad tracks again. Here are some sights seen from there.

The Dykeman Spring wetland area seen from up on the tracks

An old, ramshackle barn off Penn St. seen from the tracks

The Queen St./Baltimore Rd. overpass

© 2016 by A. Roy Hilbinger 

An Easter Morning Walk

Yesterday I was only passing through the Dykeman Spring Nature Park on the way to the grocery store. Today was a nice, leisurely stroll. The light was softer today, being overcast rather than yesterday's hard, bright sunshine, so the lushness of the new green is more apparent today. So let's amble through the park on a soft Spring morning.

The forsythias at McLean House are in full bloom

The Dykeman Walking Trail is starting to get fairly lush

A male Red-winged Blackbird fussing at me from across the wetland

An American Robin keeping a wary eye on the trail from an overhanging branch

The view across the wetland

The northeast corner of the north duck pond in proper seasonal attire

And of course, on my way back home I had to pause to get a shot of the bridges across the creek as it runs between the ball fields

© 2016 by A. Roy Hilbinger 

Spring!

The Vernal Equinox was last Sunday and Easter is tomorrow, and things are blooming and greening at a lively pace now. In town and in the woods, Spring is popping!

The Weeping Cherry in the little gazebo park across the street is blooming

Daffodils and Jonquils line the walk to the gazebo

The Pussy Willows along the Dykeman Walking Trail are popping

The undergrowth in the woods along the Dykeman Walking Trail is greening up nicely

More shrubbery in the Dykeman Spring wetland is turning green

The banks of the creek in the Dykeman Spring wetland are greening as well

© 2016 by A. Roy Hilbinger 

Vernal Equinox 2016

Yesterday was the Vernal Equinox, but I had to work, so I'm doing my annual Welcome Spring post today. This morning I walked through the Dykeman Spring Nature Park to find Daffodils and Mallards. And when I got home I watched the birds visiting my feeder station in the back yard. I recently switched to a new seed mixture which has no cracked corn or millet and voila! No more House Sparrows! But the Finches seem to love the new food, and I'm hoping that the absence of Sparrows will attract other birds as well. 

It's still chilly here but it's supposed to start warming up for good tomorrow. So Spring is moving along; get ready for more flowers!

Daffodils growing by the Dykeman Walking Trail

Mr. & Mrs. Mallard promenading by the north duck pond

A male House Finch at the sunflower seed feeder

A male Goldfinch in mid-molt at the seed feeder

© 2016 by A. Roy Hilbinger 

This Morning's Walk

This morning I walked down Martin Ave., one of Shippensburg's back streets, to the Brookside Ave. wetland. I had intended to do a survey of Burd Run at both the wetland and at the streambed restoration area on Britton Rd., but I got a late start, and once I got to the wetland and walked around a bit it was time to get home for lunch. I was looking for signs of Spring again. I didn't see any blooms or leaves, but I saw and heard lots of Red-winged Blackbirds in the wetland, and noticed that the Canada Geese were pairing up for the mating season. Heh, heh! The geese were certainly making it known - VERY LOUDLY! - that my presence was not at all welcome. Anyhow, here are some shots from the walk.

An old, ivy-covered barn/garage on Martin St. I've passed this building many times, and I've even taken a least a dozen pictures of it, but this is the first time I got a shot I liked.

A juvenile Turkey Vulture, probably one of last year's hatchlings by the look

A Tree Swallow nesting box in the Brookside Ave. wetland. There were plenty of Tree Swallows darting around in the air, but the boxes are still empty; it's not quite nesting time yet.

A view of the collection pond in the Brookside Ave. wetland

© 2016 by A. Roy Hilbinger 

First Signs of Spring

The view around here is still dominated by shades of brown and gray, but after a week of warmer than usual temperatures some signs of Spring have begun to appear. On a walk through the Dykeman Spring Nature Park yesterday morning I approached some of those signs with the macro function on my camera turned on; some of these were pretty small!

Tiny Chickweed flowers are much better seen very close up

The Daffodils along the Dykeman Walking Trail are still at least a week away from blooming

This unknown flowering shrub has some very potent flowers; I smelled them from several yards away

© 2016 by A. Roy Hilbinger 

Late Winter Landscapes

We're into March now, but even though March 1 officially marks the beginning of meteorological Spring, the Vernal Equinox is still 3 weeks off and the temperatures are still just barely above the freezing mark. Nothing blooms as yet; the landscape is still predominantly gray and brown and yellow, and this has its own austere beauty. A walk through the Dykeman Spring Nature Park reveals just such beauty.

A view across the Dykeman Spring wetland

Another view of the wetland with Purple Martin house

A view of the north duck pond

Looking east on the upland meadow

A Wyeth-esque scene on the upland meadow

A tangled copse on the upland meadow

A last look west across the upland meadow before leaving the park

© 2016 by A. Roy Hilbinger 

Around Town on a Sunday Morning

Even though I'm off this weekend, I still had to be in to work at 6 AM today for one of our semi-annual all store meetings, a two hour exercise in corporate intrusion into private time. So I decided to use this particular lemon to make some lemonade, and walked back home after the meeting, wandering through town and getting some shots I've been meaning to get but have been too tired or had my hands too full to shoot before. Except for the cats; they were an impromptu walk-on. Heh, heh!

This flower pot has been fascinating me for some time now, and today I could finally get a shot of it

Two feline siblings checking me out on Phillips Ave.

A bit of colorful Victorian gingerbread on Orange St.

The antique architecture of the Shippensburg Historical Society building 

© 2016 by A. Roy Hilbinger 

A Saturday Morning Walk

On my way to the grocery store this morning, as usual cutting through the Dykeman Spring Nature Park, these scenes caught my eye.

This Mockingbird kept a wary eye on me while munching Staghorn Sumac berries

A view of the upland meadow with the mountains to the north in the background

“Of all the paths you take in life, make sure a few of them are dirt.” - John Muir

© 2016 by A. Roy Hilbinger