See What the Blizzard Blew In

The snow began to fall early yesterday afternoon and continued until just after noon today. It’s hard to tell just how much we have as the wind that accompanied the storm placed the snow unevenly. While digging out this morning I found spots only a few inches deep and others to my waist. My best guess would be that we received 20”-24”.

With their natural food covered by the fluffy white blanket the birds have been swarming the feeders outside our kitchen window. Directly behind the main feeder is an evergreen tree that provides the birds with good thermal cover and protection from hawks. With the branches heavily laden with snow it also provides a beautiful backdrop for photographs.

It is difficult to get the photographs as sharp as I would like since I must shoot through the window glass at a relatively steep angle, but even with this issue I am pleased with the two cardinal shots posted here.

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Wildlife: Changing Uses

The people have a right to clean air, pure water, and the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic, and aesthetic values of the environment. Pennsylvania’s public natural resources are the common property of all the people, including generation yet to come. As trustees of these resources, the Commonwealth shall conserve and maintain them for the benefit of all the people
Article 1, Section 27 of the Pennsylvania Constitution



The Pennsylvania Game Commission is responsible for managing all of Pennsylvania’s game and wildlife, specifically the birds and mammals of the commonwealth for all citizens. Historically the commission has been financed primarily by hunters and trappers dollars. With hunting and trapping supporting the operation of the agency the focus of the agency has been on managing and protecting those species which are hunted and trapped and promoting the consumptive use of these populations.

While hunter numbers have been on the decline in Pennsylvania for many years, non-consumptive users of wildlife are growing in leaps and bounds.

A visit to the 2005 National Survey on Recreation and the Environment offers some interesting insight comparing the number of wildlife users from 1994-95 to those in 2000-01.
· Visits to Nature Centers grew 34%
· Viewing Wildlife up 55%
· Viewing Birds increased 31%

Nationally (2000-01) 122.28 million persons visited nature centers, 95.26 million were identified as wildlife viewers and 69.26 million as bird viewers. Big game hunting trailed the non-consumptive users coming in with 17.79 million participants.

According to Southwick Associates, Inc, (2001 Pennsylvania’s Wildlife Action Plan, Version 1.0a) “watchable wildlife recreation generated twice the value of all cattle and beef produced by Pennsylvania’s farms.” “Watchable wildlife generated $70 million in state sales and income taxes, $87 million in federal taxes, and $962 million in retail sales”. “Watchable wildlife recreation supports almost 19,000 full and part-time jobs in Pennsylvania alone.”

The study goes on to note that “watchable wildlife recreation overwhelmingly benefits rural communities, often at times of the year when other income sources are low”. The economic activity calculated to have been generated from non-consumptive uses of wildlife was estimated at $1.9 billion, slightly behind hunting which was estimated to have generated $2.2 billion.

Another interesting statistic from this report states that an estimated 1 million persons in Pennsylvania hunted, 1.2 million fished, while 3.8 million were estimated to participate in recreation wildlife viewing, feeding and photography during 2001.

Please note; in my experience hunters, fishermen, and wildlife viewers are not necessarily different persons. In many cases one person could be counted in all three categories. As and example I would like to point out that I hunt, fish, and also view wildlife. By doing so I support the Pa Fish& Boat commission with my fishing license and boat registration dollars, the Pa Game Commission by purchasing a hunting license while at the same time I am also a non-consumptive user pursuing my wildlife photography interest.

A change in Pennsylvania’s wildlife management is much needed. As the trend in wildlife users moves from the tradition consumptive to non-consumptive, wildlife management should be moving towards providing a better quality wildlife viewing experience. That the wildlife agencies are doing a lot of their work well is evident in the fact that wildlife viewing is gaining in popularity because we do have wildlife to view. However for wildlife viewing be a satisfying experience wildlife cannot have been hunted to the point that its concern for survival causes it to flee at the slightest indication of human presence.

While hunting must remain as a tool for wildlife managers to control wildlife population and as a way to provide the public with consumptive outdoor recreational opportunities; it is time that the managers of the commonwealth’s wildlife manages the public lands and wildlife populations to better serve all of the citizens of the commonwealth. The focus of wildlife management must change to being one of providing a comprehensive outdoor experience upon our public lands instead of focusing primarily upon providing hunting opportunities with wildlife viewing/tourism as a sometimes unwelcome byproduct of the hunting industry.

I'll Watch Your Back if You Watch Mine

A White-throated Sparrow and a Tufted Titmouse appear to be sharing guard duties watching out for each other.

While shooting this series I was focusing both my lens and my attention on the White-throated Sparrow in the foreground, barely noticing the Titmouse behind. It wasn’t until I reviewed the images later that I noticed their coordinated poses.

Groundhog Day, Halfway Through Winter

Tuesday marks the halfway point of winter and is celebrated in Pennsylvania with the largest Groundhog Day celebration in Punxsutawney; a celebration that according to Wikipedia has drawn as many as 40,000 revelers.

Not being one for large crowds, I have never attended the celebration and have no plans to in the future, however I did decide to share some of my thoughts here about these burrowing rodents.

Growing up on the family farm I learned at a young age that groundhogs were pest. Their offences ranged from borrowing under outbuildings, burrowing in the pastures as well as a minimal amount of damage from feeding on crops like corn and hay.

Consuming a steady diet of outdoor magazines like Outdoor Life, Field & Stream, Sports Afield and Pennsylvania Game News I learned that indeed the lowly groundhog did have one good use, as a target! I learned that a class of rifle was built specifically for hunting these critters as well as other “undesirable” creatures. With that knowledge the words varmint and varmint rifles were added to my vocabulary. With that my early groundhog hunting career was launched, first with a .22 and later larger centerfire rifles.

With these rifles I shot groundhogs everywhere from close range out to ranges exceeding 500 yards, all the while feeling that doing so was the right thing to do; besides the groundhog was just a pesky varmint. Killing 40-60 each summer I was doing my part to improve our area. As my proficiently and equipment improved I began to notice that finding groundhogs to shoot was becoming more difficult requiring me to travel further from home seeking my quarry.

Slowly ever so slowly the obvious truth began to dawn on me. My desire to kill more and more groundhogs was being thwarted by both a decline in population and their increasing fear of humans. In short I learned a very simple but obvious lesson; if you shoot it today you cannot shoot it again tomorrow.

Today I know that although in some circumstances the groundhog is a pest, he also comes with benefits. Groundhogs serve as a food species for numerous species of hawks as well as foxes and coyotes. Their burrows provide homes for other animals such as rabbits, raccoons, foxes, and opossums. With the benefits this stocky little critter provides I now prefer to allow them to live as long as they aren’t undermining an outbuilding or harvesting my garden a little too early.

Indoor/Outdoor Bird Photography

With the cold temperatures descending on our area this weekend I decided to do some of my photography from a warm observation post. To get an acceptable background I attached a broken rotted limb temporarily to my deck railing near the bird feeder. Attaching a plastic cup to the backside and filling it with sunflower seed completed the setup.

Soon a male Northern Cardinal landed on a branch checking out the new accommodations.

After discovering the treasure trove of seeds the Cardinal settled in on the feeding cup with the Y branch framing him perfectly.

These images, unlike all of the other bird shots posted this winter, was shot from the comfort of our kitchen.

Tufted Titmouse

Among the various birds visiting our natural feeders this winter the Tufted Titmouse is one of the most common. These little feather bundles are constantly flitting about allowing close-up photography. With the Canon 100-400mm L lens as my primary wildlife lens it is necessary to get very close to capture good feather detail.

Getting close seems to be my only option at this time as this lens’s autofocus will not function with either of Canon’s teleconverters attached to my 30D and my budget will not permit obtaining one of the much coveted super telephotos like the 500-600mm f4’s at this time.

This Titmouse allowed me to make this capture while perched within inches of my lens’s minimum focus distance.

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Wintry Sky

As daylight fades into darkness the warm colors of sunset belie the chilling temperature of the approaching cold winter night.

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A Time to Heal

With the deer hunting seasons past some of the season’s casualties are making their recovery


I first observed this doe’s wound on December 2nd, the third day of our rifle season. At the time she was having considerable difficulty walking. The wound appeared to be a day or two old as there was no sign of fresh blood. It wasn’t until December 23rd that I had the occasion to photograph her wound.

A close examination of this image shows visible fragments of broken bone. This bone damage precludes any future use of the leg but as many of us are aware a deer can do quite well on three good legs.

Photographing her once again on January 20th I was pleased to see that the injury is closing and continues to shows no sign of infection. The doe walks with a considerable limp but runs nearly as well as a healthy deer although the injured leg flails about uselessly.

We will never know whether this injury was inflicted by a careless hunter, buy a hunter who didn’t know where to place a bullet for a humane kill or if it was the result of a carefully aimed shot going awry. Perhaps an unseen twig forced the bullet from its intended path, or maybe the doe moved as the weapon was fired.

What ever the cause of the muffed shot this doe has suffered considerable pain and disability from an injury to flesh and bone of this magnitude. She stands in testimony to the strength and endurance of the whitetail deer.

Winter Afternoon Woodpeckers

The beautiful weather we experienced Saturday gave me another opportunity to work with the birds at our natural appearing bird feeders. One feeding spot is in the back of this upright weathered log. I have noticed that both Downy and Red-bellied Woodpeckers prefer this particular feeding spot.

Perhaps the cover surrounding this spot is attractive to the woodpeckers or perhaps it is because they can cling vertically to the trunk while feeding but what ever the reason both species frequent this spot. Being limited with the 400mm lens, I set up a few feet away hoping the woodpeckers would allow me to capture photographs with good feather detail.

The male Downy was the first to arrive. Although it remained hidden behind the feeder trunk most of the time it did move into sight twice allowing me to click a few frames each time.

A male Red-bellied did likewise although it was not quite as trusting as the Downy.

The birding fun all ended when a different “bird” arrived to clean up the remaining bird seed.

Bird Feeder Moments

With the birds flocking to the feeders sometimes it’s possible to catch some interesting action shots.
White-breasted Nuthatches will occasionally display aggressive behavior upon their approach to a busy feeder. Fluffing their feathers and spreading their wings they attempt to drive other birds away. The aggressive behavior only last for a second or two. I seldom have time to focus, compose, and fire. To date this is my best shot

A Tufted Titmouse perched on the tree directly above a naturalized feeder decided to descend at the very moment I clicked the shutter. Capturing the bird’s free-fall was more luck than skill.

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