A BLAST FROM THE PAST

I have been sick for nearly 6 weeks so naturing trips just ain't happening - therefore it is time to talk about the past and the future at the same time.

The past first - I wanted to take pictures of skunk cabbage when it was blooming. The skunk cabbage is the first wild flower to bloom here in the late winter and very early spring. It's flower is not considered beautiful by most folks but I always love to see it as it means spring is just around the corner. As a member of the Arum family the plant actually produces it's own heat to melt trough the snow in order to bloom. Several years ago my friend Ken Miller volunteered to take me to a place where he knew we would find the plant. It was planned to be an easy walk through a stream under a bridge and into the marsh where they grow. The water was very deep so we had to "walk around" the stream. We went several hundred yards down the road and crossed a railroad track (build on a high mound) The snow was frozen and ice covered so footing was not easy. I was not as well as I am today and needed the help of Ken and his grandson Jeremy to push and pull the fat man up the hills. It did not help that we were all laughing about the situation. The mission was accomplished, with a great deal of struggling.

Next, the future - I am looking forward to the skunk cabbage blooming again this year. Spring is such a special time and any sign the winter is loosing its grip to the wonderful spring flowers and creatures is a memorable event.

Above are 2 pics from the eventful day.

Good Bye Old Friend

One of my best friends went home to be with the Lord this week. Dick Warren was a remarkable man. and inspiration to me and others - I took this photo of him on a spring 08 visit to Shenk's ferry. It spoke to me then but I did not want to hear what it said.

KESTRAL

Sat 11/7/09 - I got as close to a Kestrel as I ever have today - I noticed it perched on a wire near our church school on Seighrist Rd. (West Hempfield Twp -Lancaster County, PA) As normal these sighting happen when I am WC (without camera). What was not normal is that after I fetched the camera and Florence (about 15 min later) he was still there.

Kestrels are amazing birds, the smallest of the falcon family, the are beautifully marked and fascinating flyers. They can hover in one place like a hummer and often will do this over an open field looking for the movement of a small rodent, their major food source. They will eat insects also.

I have seen them many times in the past but they are very leery of man. They will often fly from a perch as you approach and then perch again 20 or 30 yards away and will keep repeating this untill they get tired of you following them - then they fly out of sight. They often return to the same hunting grounds if they are successful.

This guy allowed me to get close enough for a good picture. (see above) Come to think of it I did get closer to a Kestrel once. I was between tours and taking a nap in the car waiting on the second bus - I awoke to discover a Kestrel perched on a fence post about 20 feet from me and of course I had no camera. I did enjoy the experience.

A beautiful visitor

A painted lady landed on our "picture window" today. The window is almost always warm with sunshine but it is Nov 6 an the temps have been below 30 at night but there she was - a bit slow but as beautiful as spring. On October 9th we released the last of our "butterfly heard" after our last butterfly program of the season - there were two painted ladies in that group and I am assuming that she is one of them. still to find her 28 days latter is special. She looked in very good condition no matter where she came from. Folks who know us know that we consider butterflies a gift and messenger from God so you may appreciate just how excited we were.

Last week the James Stricker family called to report the emergence of a butterfly from it's chrysalis. I hurried to their play and found a beautifully pristine black swallowtail - got lots of pics (see above) They had found the cats on there dill plants and brought them inside. Had they been left outside the black swallowtails would have wintered in the chrysalis emerging in the spring.

In the above pics the young man with the hat and the butterfly on his finger is Peter Strickler and the young man with the butterfly on his face is a guest of the Strickler's named Ben.

HAPPY NATURING !!!!!!

Where has the time gone?

It has been 10 months since our last blog - in that time we have built the web site (http://sites.google.com/site/creationappreciation/ ) and worked on allot of other projects. We designed the web site to replace the blogs but have missed writing about our nature adventures on a regular basis so we are back - I know that those who were reading this gave up on it as I was not posting new stuff but here we go again we will try to use this blog and the web site to keep you updated eventually the other two blogs (below) will disappear
[GODDIDITALL.BLOGSPOT.COM] & [CREATIONAPPRECIATION.BLOGSPOT,COM]

NEW WEB SITE

Dear friends we are opening a new web site which will make it easier for folks to read about us rather than scrolling through blogs - go see it and make your comments - the address will be easier and shorter soon but for now it is

http://sites.google.com/site/creationappreciation/