Harrier in the Morning

There’s an extensive grassland in northcentral Pennsylvania that probably had its origin in Native American agriculture. The first European settlers would have found those clearings convenient places to begin farming. Farming continued on the area until it passed into public ownership and was planted to grasses and forbs native to North America.

Adjacent to the grassland is a wetland: partially open water, partially a cattail marsh. It has a few scattered trees, some water-filled potholes and a languid stream. The entire area, grassland and wetland, is superb wildlife habitat and so it’s a place I visit often.

One morning, as I walked the border between wetland and grassland, a flock of small birds flushed from the cattails in the wetland; they came right past me as they fled whatever flushed them.

It was only a moment until the answer presented itself – a female northern harrier –

The harrier landed on a nest box erected for kestrels and stayed there for a while as it searched for prey –

When the harrier took off she too flew past me to land on a limb that had fallen from an old black willow –

After spending some time on the fallen limb surveying the area for a meal, she again took flight and flew less than 100 yards to land on the stub of a fallen willow –

The harrier spent time on that perch slowly surveying her surroundings. Because she was relaxed and seemed comfortable with my presence, I slowly moved closer and then even closer, taking a photo every few steps. Still she looked for prey –

Eventually she took off to fly across the grassland and I lost sight of her against the distant woodland –

What a morning! The closest I’ve ever been to a harrier and a cooperative one at that.

Hawk Watch

We’re traveling a few months back in time to mid-September when I spent a morning at an overlook that’s a good spot to watch migrating hawks. In mid-September broad-winged hawks are the most abundant migrants and that morning was no exception. The first birds that passed were some juvenile broad-wings, easily told from adults by the narrow bars on their tails –

More birds came by, most were juveniles, along with the first adults with wide black and white bands on their tails –

A red-tailed hawk, with its longer wings and “belly band” of brown streaks, sailed along the ridge –

All of these birds were utilizing bubbles if warm rising air called “thermals” to gain elevation. As the rising air cools and stops rising the birds can no longer gain elevation, then they glide to the next rising thermal on the route south.

Later in the morning more thermals developed and the hawks were higher in the sky. It was time to photograph groups of migrants riding thermals –

While editing these two photos I noticed some small spots in parts of both photos. Enlarging a portion of the second photo, it became apparent that these were also hawks even higher in the sky –

That made me curious about the other photos of soaring broad-wings from that morning. So I enlarged them all and one was quite amazing. The photo in question obviously showed six broad-winged hawks –

But zooming in showed there were more hawks higher in the sky; each was circled in red and showed an amazing 53 additional hawks soaring on that thermal –

Were there even more hawks so high in the sky that the camera and its telephoto lens (roughly equivalent to 16 power binoculars) couldn’t pick them out? Quite possibly, so there’s no way to determine how many birds passed that morning.

Favorites from 2025

Never have I kept track of how many photographs I take in a year. Some days when the subject is cooperative or there’s a lot of action there may be well over 1000 photographs on the camera’s memory card. Editing and sorting often reduces the number of photos worth keeping to under 25.

In December or early January I usually select my favorites from the year before. They’re being posted here in alphabetical order with a bit of commentary on each image –

Black (cinnamon) Bear – A reddish-brown morph of the common black bear appeared in our yard one afternoon, the only live cinnamon bear I’ve ever seen. In the time it took to grab a camera and get out the door the bear was moving on, so the only photo is the east end of a west bound bear. A poor photo, but a trophy nonetheless. It was an 18 month old male that was newly on his own, looking for food and his own territory. 

Black-throated Green Warbler – These warblers breed in northeastern forests that have a large component of hemlock trees. They’re quite common in our area of Pennsylvania, both as breeding birds and during migration. This bird was headed south in the fall, headed for South America.

Common Green Darner Dragonfly – This, our largest dragonfly often migrates south in the fall and another generation comes north with the spring. Because of the speed at which they fly I was seldom able to photograph them in flight – until I bought a camera with subject recognition that would focus on the eye of a mammal, bird or large insect.

Common Loon – We took a ride to the lake to see what we could see – and wow! This loon wasn’t far from the road and was very cooperative which made it easy to get quite a few images. Loons don’t breed in Pennsylvania but migrants often stop at local lakes to rest and feed. One day many years ago, a friend and I found over 100 migrating loons on this same lake.

Eastern Chipmunk – Chipmunks are common in woodland and suburban gardens. They live in underground burrows where they also spend the winter. They don’t hibernate in winter, but do sleep a lot and wake to feed on nuts and fruits that they stored in the fall. One day this chipmunk was repeatedly running down our garden wall carrying leaves to line the chambers in its burrow. 

Honey Bee – Honey bees aren’t native to the Americas, they were introduced by early European colonists and have naturalized well. Honey bees become active early in the spring – this worker bee was gathering pollen from our early-blooming crocus flowers. This photo was made with the older version of my longest telephoto lens.

Hummingbird Clearwing Moth – Day-flying moths that feed from tubular flowers, especially the various species of monarda. They feed much like hummingbirds: hovering in front of a flower and inserting their long mouthparts to feed on the flower's nectar. Find a patch of monarda in bloom and you’ll often find several of these moths, I photograph them with my longest telephoto lens which will focus to a little over four feet.

Northern Harrier (female) – Formerly called marsh hawks, harriers fly low over old fields and wetlands searching for voles, mice and small birds. This bird was very cooperative and allowed a close approach as it hunted and flew from perch to perch over a span of about 45 minutes.

Ovenbird – This well camouflaged warbler is a common breeder in local woodlands but it spends the winter far to the south. The bird builds a dome-shaped nest on the ground. One day I looked out the kitchen window to see an ovenbird near our little pond; it stayed long enough for me to get quite a few photos.

Pearl Crescent – Pearl crescents are a common small butterfly in our area, with more than one generation a year. The larvae feed on the leaves of various species of aster. Whenever I walk in an old field where flowers are in bloom (here birdsfoot trefoil) it’s almost certain that pearl crescents will be found.

Ruby-throated Hummingbird – This male spent much of the summer defending one of our feeders from all interlopers. He was caught on camera huddling on a twig waiting out a summer rainstorm – I was dry in the garage which I often use as a photographic blind. At summer's end he headed south, flying across the Gulf of Mexico to winter in South America.

Short-eared Owl – The camera has subject recognition which enabled me to get an abundance of photos of these migratory owls. Although a few may breed in Pennsylvania, most nest in wetlands and treeless areas far to the north. Some spent the winter of 2024-25 in an area of old fields not too far from our house. They may be common one winter and totally absent the next if the vole population collapses as it does periodically . 

Split Gill Fungus – One of the most abundant fungi found on fallen dead branches, split gill fungus lives up to its common name. The underside of this colony produced a bit of abstract art for the camera. A macro lens is a great help in getting photos like this.

Trout-lily – Trout lily blooms about the same time as trout season opens, hence the name. In the Big Woods there are always thousands of the plant’s mottled leaves but very few flowers. In another area I usually find hundreds and hundreds of flowers and few leaves without flowers.

Winter Wren – I was sitting next to a small stream in the Big Woods dressed in full camo when this winter wren came along looking for food beneath the undercut bank. Then it flew to a moss-covered old root that was in a patch of sun, giving me a couple of seconds to get this photo.

These may or may not be my "best" photographs from 2025, but they're my favorites. Hopefully you've enjoyed them, I certainly enjoyed taking them.

All of these photos were taken with Olympus (now OM Systems) cameras, the E-M1 ii or OM-1, and various Olympus (OM System) lenses: the 75-300mm, 100-400 mm (or its successor the 100-400mm ii) or 60mm macro.

Morning in the Marsh

It’s not the largest marsh in northcentral Pennsylvania, but it’s right up there. The marsh seems to have had its origin at the end of the last glaciation when, as the ice melted, vast quantities of water rushing to the sea changed the course of rivers and created new channels. The marsh occupies one of those old river channels, receiving water from some tiny streams and surface runoff from the surrounding higher ground.

Parts of the marsh appear to have been used to pasture cattle because there are the remnants of several rows of old fenceposts. Other areas seem to have been used to raise crops, similar marshlands were drained to raise celery and lettuce. An aerial photo from 1938 shows a number of fencerows crossing what is now the marsh. There also appears to have been a channel from what was probably an ill-fated effort to drain the marsh; that channel would have gradually filled with silt over the years and the surface of the marsh would have subsided due to the draining and subsequent drying.

Now the marsh has returned to be outstanding wildlife habitat which is why I went there one morning. The first sighting was of a mixed group of wood ducks and mallards –

There were more birds, a lot more, in the cattails and sedges that border the open water but, while they were hidden from sight, they were not hidden from hearing. And so I moved on, to a larger area of open water with an extensive border of cattails.

Even from a distance it was obvious there were more birds there. Gradually I drew closer, but the ducks were a long distance away across open water – no way to get closer. There were dark gray American coots (rails that lack webbed feet) with white beaks, mallards, a few black ducks and some gadwalls with their black rumps.

Too far away for photos, I decided to try for a video of the waterfowl –

It was time to leave. Along the way were a few white-throated sparrows –

And a male eastern bluebird that presented opportunities for photos –

For wildlife and flood-prone areas downstream the return of the marsh has been a boon.

These photos were taken several weeks ago, the marsh is frozen solid now and the ducks have moved on. 

December Deer

December is known for its deer, especially those cloven hoofed, antlered critters, that feature in illustrations with old St. Nick and in the poem Twas the Night Before Christmas. Of course those are reindeer (called caribou in North America), but here much of December is known as the season to hunt deer, white-tailed deer specifically.

Don't try to capture those reindeer on a camera trap - they're magic and can't be caught on camera. But in December one of my camera traps on the hill above the house caught a fair number of white-tailed deer on video –

The videos show deer as their breeding season was tapering off, but the bucks are still looking for does that are receptive. If you look closely at their antlers, you’ll see that there are a number of different bucks in the videos: from young bucks that haven’t grown antlers to an impressive mature buck.

Two young bucks are seen sparring, one too young to have grown antlers this year. His sparring partner is about 18 months old, having been born in 2024. Young deer often engage in these sparring contests as a prelude to more serious contests in years to come.

Speaking of young deer, the video shows a six month old doe jumping and running in what can only be described as playing. Some people don’t think animals or birds play, but those of us who spend time watching other living creatures observe many of them playing.

Another young deer is seen following a mature buck. At first glance it appears to be a doe, but the pedicels from which antlers will grow next year indicate that this is a young buck, born last spring, following the older buck.

Once again the camera traps have videos of an injured deer. They live in rough terrain: steep and rocky with fallen trees and limbs, it’s not surprising that deer with leg injuries appear on camera with some regularity.

These deer live in an area that's too steep and rocky for all but the most energetic hunters, so most will survive until either a predator, injuries or old age bring their lives to an end.  

Season’s Greetings and a Happy 2026 to All.

 

Fall in the Fencerow

For a number of years one of my camera traps has been on a tree in a fencerow, so there have been previous posts of videos from the fencerow. Herewith are the videos taken from early-September through early-November. The fencerow is about 100 feet wide with trees of various sizes toward the middle bordered on each side by shrubs, primarily autumn olive that was introduced to the U.S. from Asia in the 1800s.

As you watch these video clips take note of the abundant low plants with white flowers. In early fall northcentral Pennsylvania, and much of the northeastern part of the continent, had a dry spell with little rain and those plants wilted. Later in the season as rainfall increased the plants responded and were less wilted.

That white-flowered plant is white snakeroot, an abundant native plant throughout most of eastern North America. White snakeroot is poisonous, containing the toxic chemical tremetol. White-tailed deer do not eat white snakeroot, but cattle, sheep and horses will eat the plant. In those domestic animals the tremetol is concentrated in their milk and meat.

In the early years of European settlement, when cattle were pastured in woodland, many people died from what was called milk sickness as a result of tremetol in milk. It is said that Abraham Lincoln’s mother died of milk sickness caused by tremetol.

Here are the video clips from the fencerow –

It was surprising that no eastern coyotes appeared in the videos, there are two other camera traps in the same general area that had multiple videos of those fascinating animals.

Getting Ready for Winter

The road is separated from a field by a row of large old trees, many of them with cavities – holes where birds like the white-breasted nuthatch nest and gray squirrels have a snug place to spend the winter. For a naturalist it’s always worthwhile to take a look at these cavities, you never know what might be there.

One of the white oaks along the road had a large horizontal limb where a branch had died, decayed and left a hole. A close look at that hole revealed leaves and hair hanging out.

In a matter of seconds a head emerged – a gray squirrel –

And then the rest of the young squirrel emerged, quickly followed by a second young one and both of them climbed atop the limb –

The second animal proceeded to bite its sibling repeatedly –

Meanwhile the adult female was gathering leaves and taking them into the hole to make a cozy nest for winter –

One of the young ones that hadn’t quite learned how to make a nest repeatedly tried to take a leafless twig into the cavity – but it wouldn’t fit –

Perhaps you noticed the wound on the adult squirrel, here’s a better photo; it looks like the biting offspring may have taken a hunk out of its mother –

A little further along another gray squirrel was peering from a hole in a contorted red oak –

It soon ran down the tree and over to a stonerow where the wind had made a pile of leaves; the squirrel proceeded to gather a mouthful of leaves –

Up the tree it went and into the cavity in the tree –

Leaves insulate a tree cavity quite well; on the coldest of winter days squirrels often don’t emerge from their cozy dens insulated with dry leaves.

Gray squirrels also build leaf nests high in trees if there aren't enough tree cavities available. Those leaf nests aren't a good place to spend cold winter nights so gray squirrels prefer cavities in trees; but they compete with flying squirrels, woodpeckers, nuthatches and other birds and mammals for any available cavities.  

In woodlands composed primarily of young trees there aren't enough cavities to go around, so it's wise to save any tree with a usable cavity; trees that are hollow from the ground up don't count.