STARWARS under the stars!
Labor Day Weekend was a wet one and we tried to figure out what additional fun things to do! After I made a quick visit home, we had our own movie theater set up at the campsite. STARWARS was soo much fun to watch under the stars and was a first time we had done anything like this before! We saw many campers checking out the movie as they pass by the campsite! I just love how in tune all the kids are while the adults are trying to stay close to the fire and stay warm.
Spotlighting Wildlife
An Allegany State Park tradition is that families go out at night and spotlight animals along the roads! You never know what you might encounter and here are a few animals that we encountered.
This Raccoon thinks we are going to throw food!
This White-tailed Deer didn’t let me take too many photos of it!
Why are we finding cats out in the middle of the woods?
day two – North Country Trail
After breakfast, the kids started to make a small fire, broken down camp and we headed out on the trail towards the Quaker Store. We hit the re-route and I don’t see where it helped the existing trail that was previously there. I would have rather walked through the slush wet trail than climbing over the mountain with slush on the trail. At one point we did decide to adventure down the hill in search of the old trail (which we never found, but did find the pickers). The back section behind all the Quaker Cabins was a fun hike; we laughed, spit trail mix at each other and truly enjoyed the day. We finally arrived at the Coon Run road and worked our way over to the Quaker Store (in search of a ride to Cain Hollow). What a wonderful hiking trip and I am very proud of these two hikers that assisted me. To learn more about the trip, follow the links to the pictures.
day one – North Country Trail
Today was the start of my back packing trip along the North Country Trail with two young naturalist. We started at the administration building here in Allegany State Park and headed to the Stony Brook Lean-to for an overnight. All morning we watched the NEXRAD radar which said that it was finally clear for us to start hiking. Of course, it rained for the first 1 ½ hours of hiking! We stopped at the Conservation Trail Lean-to and took some time to eat our Subway subs (and to try to stay dry). We arrived after 5 hours of hiking at the Stony Brook Lean-to. After setting up the tents, we made dinner, joked around and got a camp fire going. With our luck, after going to bed we had two porcupines started chewing on the lean-to building and I finally was able to fall asleep after being absolutely exhausted. I noticed mice running around the outside of the tents about 5:30 am and the coyotes howling about 8:30am the following Morning. What a night, look at the pictures and learn more about the trip.
Flickr Visit By Friends
Yesterday I had a wonderful visit by Bird Mom and Jason Sholar who decided to take a road trip to Allegany State Park (getting ready for Camp Flickr ). This was one of our many photographic moments during our adventure around the park.
We didn’t know that this osprey had a fish in its talons until we accidentally spooked it.
I was happy to get just one photo of this bird flying with its lunch!
Thanks for such a wonderful visit Bev and Jason!
Walmart Adventure
Unexpectedly I made a small detour to Red House Creeks while heading to Walmart today. These pictures are taken near the Bradford toll booth here in allegany state park, NY.
Is that a….. your kidding me…..
I can now say to expect the unexpected here in Allegany State Park. Today we had an unexpected visitor here at the Administration Building which got trapped in one of our window wells (probably at night sometime). Don’t ask how a mammal that lives in the water ends up in a location like this (up a hill, behind a building and quite a distance from water) but this is proof that it can happen. Typically we get a toad (wait, there already is a toad in there), salamanders or even a snake stuck in these wells. Mammals typically are able to climb out or they might decide to climb in and eat these other critters. This window well was just a little too tall for this beaver to climb out. Luckly P.G. happened to be out for a cigarette break and heard a noise!
Trapping wasn’t easy be we were able to get this beaver into the trash can. The officer that assisted ended up with some beaver scat on his leg (whoops). We were quickly off to the lake to be released. Of course, it didn’t take long for a crowd to show up excited to see the release. Once we opened the can the beaver slowly walked out and headed right to the creek which empties into Red House Lake this location.
Once in the water the beaver got very low and tried getting as much of its fur wet as possible (creek water was shallow). It then headed down the stream dtowards the lake (moved must slower than I had expected).
When the beaver made it over to deeper water – it took a small dive and then ended up in the middle of the lake in about 10 seconds! I would like to wish our beaver friend good luck and a fun adventure very away from buildings!
Movie in Allegany
Today the film crew started shooting some scenes here in allegany state park for the new movie “Nicholas of Myra” which is a movie about our friend Saint Nicholas. I will only post a few production pictures here but to see more go to www.nicholasofmyra-movie.com/ or look for the movie around Christmas time 2007.
Its not my fault that I am a mutant!
I have some sad news to report. Around 6pm park staff knocked on my door to let me know that our good friend “marshmallow” had been hit by a vehicle. Supposedly, a dog scared marshmallow into the road as the vehicle was passing by and very quickly it was over.
Marshmallow was first observed on the 15th of June in the Red House Picnic Area with mom and three brown siblings. Being raised in the picnic area, marshmallow would let you get quite close to observe and very unlike I would expect any true albino animal.
This kind albino woodchuck did frequent the road as many passers would try and take its picture! It truly was the talk of the area. By mid July, this bold male left mom’s territory as any young woodchuck should do. Marshmallow moved down the road along the bikepath near the Red House Dam overspill. It was this area which its last days were lived. It even made the Olean Times Herald News Paper just days before this incident.
Rest in peace my white (always dirty) friend!!
A flickr get-together looking for Dragonflies
Took the day off of work today and spend the afternoon with Jeremy and Karen Martin Pictures over at the James A. Zaepfel Nature Sanctuary and Research Center. Jeremy had taught me some great info on improving my dragonfly pictures and gave me info on how to identify some different dragonflies! Here are a few thumbnails from some pictures that I took.
Yeck, wet day!
It was a very wet day today with rain and thunderstorms. High temps were 89.6F and a low of 61.3F. Banding session was canceled and will resume tomorrow! I did nothing but nap and clean house today!! But, I did get my first looks of our new hat that was designed.
It turned out much better than expected!! They come in both high and low profile with Navy Blue, Hunter Green (what is in the picture) and Barbie Pink.
Flickr Down Time
Well, flickr is down and I have no idea what to do. Luckily the staffs of flickr gave us a duty of coloring in two circles and take its picture. Knowing that the sun would be going down quickly, I colored in my circles with the blue and pink colors and jumped in the truck. It didn’t take long before I saw some geese on the side of the road that I knew would be cooperative in obtaining a close up picture.
After my quick photoshoot, I was on my way home to edit and wait for flickr to get back online. Once it was working again, I uploaded the pictures and now waiting to see who wins the free year membership.
WISH ME LUCK AND SAY HELLO TO ME IN FLICKR!
Bear Visit
Today the weather temp was a high of 86.2F and Low of 54.6F. About 8:30pm there was something that just told me to get up and look outside. What I found was a HUGE black bear that is probably around 200 pounds. It was checking out my grill which I had cooked hamburgers earlier. It then started climbing the tree and eating some sunflowers from my squirrel proof feeder (notice I said squirrel proof). Typically I take this down each evening but this guy beat me to it!! Ugg, Anyways, I started scrambling getting my camera in order to try and take some pictures! Of course, my screen door just kept on making the pictures look goofy but I did luckily get a shot in.
Not long after taking the picture, the bear got startled and climbed down the tree. It circled the tree and the bear started coming towards my screen door. I was probably about 5-7 feet away when I slammed the heavy thick door which in turn got the neighbors dog barking. This startled the bear and up into the woods it ran.
I believe that this bear started coming towards the house thinking I was going to give it handouts! The problem is that too many people try feeding the bears. Although I was very close to the bear, I was safe for the fact that I was able to close the door where it couldn’t get me. People don’t always have that opportunity and chance that the bear could turn on them. Just seeing a huge mammal like this had my heart pumping and was an amazing rush! There is just nothing like that experience!! So, if you do come across a bear in the wild, please don’t try to feed it! Making noise typically is enough to scare it away.
Banding Session
TODAY – Hot and Muggy Sunny day with a High of 89.6F and Low of 61.0F
Saturday was our 5th MAPS session and we ended up getting rained out with only an hour of operation completed. We finished the session today with it being very hot and muggy. Both days the birds were quite but I blame it on the weather!! We still caught some great birds like: Cedar Waxwing, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, Eastern Towhee, Field Sparrow, Blue Headed Vireo, and a Magnolia Warbler.
I would like to say thanks all my volunteers that came out in the rain and in the sun to assist. I will let everyone know once the hats are completed.
Mon@rch's Nature Blog 