Photos

I made a recent trip to Elk County, Pennsylvania. I managed to get a few photos of wild elk, and this one, with two calves suckling, was the best.

It seems strange to me that I had seen wild moose and deer in my yard growing up, that I had seen wild bison and pronghorn by my tenth birthday, but that I had not seen a wild elk until this year.

More recently, I made my second trip to the National Aviary and got more familiarized with my new camera. I took these bird portraits.

Last, I'll post a photo of a purple mushroom that I found in Cook's Forest. I've heard that finding a purple mushroom is supposed to bring luck.

Tags: Photos

Shearwater - Rook

Description: A short CD, ten songs but taking up only a little over 36 minutes.

The chick has light gray feathers. Upon reaching maturity, the feathers develop an iridescent character that is most visible when the band takes flight. The colors of trumpets, dulcimers, strings, and woodwinds are all found in the plumage.

Voice: The call of the Shearwater is especially beautiful. It often starts mournful, but grows more confident and wondrous. The call ends quickly, never outlasting it's welcome, and generally leaves the listener wanting more.

The timbre of the call leads some ornithologists to assume a relation to the Buckley bird, but the resemblance is superficial. The structures of the calls are closer to those of the Hollis bird, although calls of both birds are distinctly different.

Habitat and Range: They frequent lonely, desolate coasts, especially in cooler climates such as the British Isles, Newfoundland, and Patagonia. They make occasional forays into the Appalachian Mountains and the deserts of the American Southwest.

Nesting: The Shearwater makes it's nest on the ground on uninhabited islands. A single egg is laid, and it can take a year before the egg hatches and the chick reaches maturity.

Official Web site

Tags: Music Review

A Good Week

This has been a good week so far. On Sunday, I finished my Wilderness First Aid certification course. Now I should be able to offer more help to people I encounter while hiking. It also puts me closer to leading hikes for Venture Outdoors.

My favorite clothing company, Nau, has a new lease on life. They will be a little smaller for the new version, but they'll still be making the same environmentally and socially conscious clothing. You can read more on their blog.

Politics also shows something promising, with Barack Obama looking to have a huge lead over John McCain. I hope this continues.

The new Futurama DVD also came out this week. The Beast With a Billion Backs was an entertaining release.

Tags: Outdoors