Up One Creek and Down the Other

I decided to follow the local creeks today, out into farm country along Burd Run via Fogelsonger Rd. and back into town along Middle Spring/Branch Creek. And along the way there were definitely things to see.

I started in the Burd Run Riparian Restoration park in hopes of getting another shot at that Green Heron, and sure enough there it was, fishing in the collection pond. It caught one frog and ate it right there, and then caught another and flew up to eat it on a tree branch over the creek, which allowed me to get much closer. I spent about a half hour with that bird and took close to 30 shots, and ended up using the last one.

Of course I also found cows along Fogelsonger Rd. And I got surprised going back down North Earl St., where a very large Pileated Woodpecker flew into a tree right in front of me and proceeded to pry bark off in search of tasty bugs. He completely ignored me, so I got pretty close and shot another 20 or so photos. This ended up being a very productive hike!

The Green Heron strikes a pose

Burd Run at Fogelsonger Rd.

Holsteins on Fogelsonger Rd.

Daisy Fleabane by Middle Spring Creek

The Pileated Woodpecker digging for lunch

A Yellow Poplar, also known as Tulip Poplar

The flowery, and shady, banks of Branch Creek

© 2020 by A. Roy Hilbinger

Visiting the Burd Run Restoration Park

I decided to go over to the Burd Run Riparian Restoration Project park, just a little downstream from the Brookside wetland. The Spring floods and windstorms haven't been kind to it; there are a couple of places where broken limbs and other flood debris have dammed up the creek somewhat and a good part of the paths at the north end aren't walkable because of mud or water. So I didn't get as many shots there as I usually get. I did, however, finally manage to get a shot of a Green Heron, sitting in a Willow over the wetland pool and observation deck and pretending I couldn't see it for all the leaves. It didn't work, which it finally figured out and flew across the pool to a Maple across the way and out of my range. All in all a pleasant walk on an equally pleasant day.

A Catbird nattering away on a branch over the creek

A small Willow grove by the creek

Green Hawthorn, also known as Southern Hawthorn, growing by the creek

The Green Heron pretending it's hiding

© 2020 by A. Roy Hilbinger

Today's Walk

I decided to walk out into farm country on Possum Hollow Rd., out past my brother's house and up to I-81, and came back into town on Olde Scotland Rd., where I cut over to the woods on the other side of the railroad tracks to visit the old filling pool along Gum Run. The filling pool is a leftover from the days when trains ran by steam power and periodically had to stop to fill their water tanks. The old tracks ran along Gum Run; they're gone now, but the old pool is still there, way back in the woods and very picturesque.

Stripes and swirls of color in a field along Possum Hollow Rd.

The Mennonite farm across Possum Hollow Rd. from my brother's house

A Mourning Dove in a front yard along Possum Hollow Rd.

Wenger Feeds' grain silos along the RR tracks off Mt. Rock Rd.

A path in the woods near the filling pool

The old filling pool

© 2020 by A. Roy Hilbinger

A Visit to the Brookside Wetland

I went to visit the Brookside Ave. wetland today because I hadn't gone there since I switched to shooting in RAW. It being May, I was hoping for butterflies, but it was a little chilly and fairly windy, and no butterflies were out in those conditions. But I did get some good landscape shots, and a Tree Swallow portrait. And on the way home I found two kittens playing on a farm. So it was worth the trip!

A view of part of the collection pond

Walking along the berm around the pond

A Tree Swallow atop its nesting box

Another view of the pond

The boardwalk at the entrance to the wetland

Two kittens playing. You can just see a bit of Mama behind the gray one

© 2020 by A. Roy Hilbinger

So Very Green

I had some grocery shopping to do this morning, and of course I went to the store via the Dykeman Spring Nature Park. The biggest impression walking through the park was how lush and green everything is now. See if you don't agree.

The overgrown causeway over the creek between the ball fields

One of the resident feral cats in the wetland keeping a wary eye on me

The Purple Martin house in the wetland is very overgrown

A patch of Buttercups on the banks of the north duck pond

Another of the benches beside the north duck pond

A big patch of Dame's Rocket in the woods on the way up to the meadow

"The grand old Duke of York, he had 10,000 men; he marched them up the hill...

... and he marched them down again." Walking up and down the meadow on the hay track

© 2020 by A. Roy Hilbinger

Sunday Bach - Easter 5

Bach wrote two cantatas for Rogation Sunday, the fifth Sunday after Easter. We listened to the first of those, BWV 86, last year, so this year we'll listen to the other - BWV 87, Bisher habt ihr nichts gebeten in meinem Namen (So far you have not asked anything in my name, Leipzig 1725). This is also a small, intimate cantata like last year's, but a bit darker. Still, there's lots of musical beauty here. The late Craig Smith of Emmanuel Music talks about this:

The Rogation Sunday cantata BWV 87 Bisher habt ihr nichts gebeten in meinem Namen is one of the most successful of the von Ziegler cantata texts. As is typical with this poet there are two biblical quotations, which generate all of the poetic text. The first is John 16:24. In it Jesus tells the disciples that they will soon understand the difficult metaphors that he has been using. Bach sets this rather severe text in a dense imitative aria for bass with strings doubled by two oboes and oboe da caccia. The duality of God and Son emphasized in the passage is ingeniously portrayed by the fact that the countersubject is a condensation of the last half of the main subject. This gives the movement a circular, layered effect. The continuation of the countersubject is compact and detailed. These three ideas are thrown into every possible combination and key. The aria has the effect of being a tight knot, which is gradually unraveled by the next three movements.

Von Ziegler finds the biblical passage alarming rather than reassuring. It sets off a warning to pray for forgiveness. The secco alto recitative is jagged and austere, as open and barren as the previous aria is dense. The following alto aria with two oboes da caccia obbligato is one of the longest arias in all of the cantatas. It is as if the breadth is needed to explicate the tough nut of the bass aria. The musical materials are complex. The continuo alternates between isolated eighth notes and a rising arpeggio figure. The opening line of the two oboes da caccia generates from the words. The aria is unusually chromatic, even for Bach. The sound of the two oboes da caccia with the alto is so ravishingly beautiful and the harmony so rich, that clearly Bach is portraying mankind's plight and confusion as unusually compelling. The shear repetition of the "vergib" motive is bearable because of the amazing harmonic detail of its context. This motive plays unchanged throughout both the A and B sections. Although this piece was written three years before the St. Matthew Passion, the scoring, the sound and the harmonic language are identical with the arioso, "Ach, Golgatha."

After the dank oboe da caccia texture, the strings in the following tenor recitative are a warm relief. The bass again sings the words of Jesus from John 16: 33 in a brief aria with continuo. Here the texture is much more open and overtly expressive than the beginning aria. Its placement between the string recitative and string aria of the tenor is interesting. The effect is of liberating the tenor to sing his ravishing siciliano aria. It is surprising to find perhaps Bach's most sheer and beautiful siciliano in such a dour context, but the effect is of a great weight being lifted off the soul. The potency of the aria gives it a climactic role in the cantata.

The harmonization of "Jesu meine Freude" is connected to the music of the opening aria. It is no accident that the bass line in many of its phrases encompasses the sixth leap that is the head theme of the first aria. This is in every way an unusual but absolutely top-drawer cantata. The combination of very short and very long sections is calculated and effective. The juxtaposition of the dense style of the opening with the arias is potent and brilliantly achieved.

© Craig Smith

Once again this year I've chosen a performance by the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir under the direction of Ton Koopman. Enjoy!

Photo © 2020 by A. Roy Hilbinger 

Walking in the Woods

I felt a need to walk in the woods today, so I headed over to the Dykeman Spring Nature Park and the Upland Trail, which rises out of the wetland and heads up to the meadow. Of course, I had to go through the wetland to get there, and of course there were birds. And a Painted Turtle. So it wasn't just a walk in the woods.

Dame's Rocket in the woods along the Dykeman Walking Trail

A male Red-winged Blackbird singing in the wetland

A Blue Jay in the wetland woods

A Warbling Vireo in the Kentucky Coffee Tree by the north duck pond. It has such a beautiful voice!

A Painted Turtle and its reflection in the bog pool next to the north duck pond

The woodland stairway on the Upland Trail

© 2020 by A. Roy Hilbinger

A Short Walk on the Rail Trail

Today has been very Summer-like, much warmer and more humid. I went for a short walk in the Cumberland Valley Rail Trail just to be out and about to see who might also be around. I was in luck! Lots of birds flying around, and I managed to get shots of a Red-bellied and a Red-headed Woodpecker as well as a Brown Thrasher, and got an almost-missed shot of a Chipmunk enjoying a Black Walnut snack just off the trail. And of course there were cows! A few scenic shots round out the tally for the day. Take a look!

Walking down the Rail Trail

There are a lot of these boulders along the trail

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Holsteins on a farm near the trail

Chipmunk snack time!

Brown Thrasher

Red-headed Woodpecker

© 2020 by A. Roy Hilbinger

A Spring Day

I took a leisurely walk in the Dykeman Spring Nature Park this morning. It's been a pleasant Spring day, and the park was looking more Summer-like now that the leaves are really starting to come in. Come take a walk in the park!

Dame's Rocket along the nature trail

Rhodora, a close relative of Rhododendrons and Azaleas

The "back entrance" to the park along the nature trail

A Catbird typically chattering away

A cozy nook beside the north duck pond

The red bridge

Daisy Fleabane in the wetland

A Dykeman wetland landscape

© 2020 by A. Roy Hilbinger