Rain Forest

Harper's Run in the county park downstream

It's official: June 2013 was the wettest June on record here.  We ended the month with 0.5 inches more rain than the second-wettest June.  And, we're 2.5 inches above normal for the year so far.  Except for last Friday (June 28), it has rained part or all of every single day here for the last two weeks, and in between storms the air's has been so humid it's nearly visible.  As you might imagine, everything is sodden, soggy, dripping...you get the point.  If I were through-hiking the Appalachian Trail this year, I'd probably give up.

I decided to venture down to my garden last evening; I really hadn't visited since I planted my tomatoes on Mother's Day--they usually can take care of themselves, the mosquitoes have been ferocious, and the humidity means I start to drip as soon as I open the garden gate.  Thankfully, the weeds weren't as dense as I thought they might be.  However, my plum-shaped Roma tomato plants are all dying, even as they are loaded with tomatoes.  I'm sure it's because of the incredible and relentless humidity.  So far, the Big Boy hybrids still look alright, but they don't produce good tomato sauce like the Romas do.

Sunday morning, before the rain started and it got too warm, Kali and I walked three miles in the county park along "my" creek downstream of "my" preserve.  The trails there are drier than the trails at my preserve, so we walk at the county park when it's too wet here.  We'd planned on four miles, but thunder warned us to shorten our hike, and we got back to the car just before the rain started and washed out the afternoon.  

Kali on the footbridge over Harper's Run

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To my followers, I apologize for not posting much lately.  I have been very ill for the last two weeks and am slowly recovering, which limited my time outdoors.  (Of course, the lousy weather didn't help, either.)  Upcoming, Kali and I will be traveling to Colorado and California for 10 days, so I won't be posting again until mid-July.  I look forward to communicating with you again then!

Along Harper's Run

Kali didn't have to go to work yesterday, and I took left work1-1/2 hours early (hey, I had to work three hours on Saturday) in order to enjoy a late afternoon walk on a beautiful autumn day with bright sunshine and temperatures in the upper 60s.  We decided to walk at the county park downstream of the preserve for a change of scene.

Part of the walk in the park takes us alongside a modest but picturesque stream called Harper's Run.  Just after we parked and started upstream along the creek, a hawk flew in from the surrounding woods and landed smack dab in the middle of the creek, and then just sat there, tail fanned out, watching us.  We approached slowly and cautiously, and the hawk flew up out of the creek and onto the rocks alongside.  At that point, I could see that it was carrying something in its talons, but I couldn't tell what.  I pulled out the camera and cranked up the telephoto into the "digital telephoto" range, hoping to get a decent shot despite heavy shade.  I present the best of the five images I captured.  The hawk is a Cooper's Hawk (I couldn't tell in the field), and it appears to have captured a young squirrel (soggy from sitting in the creek).  As we got closer, the hawk carried its meal off to a tree and disappeared.

Christmas Eve Visits

Harper's Run

Our friends Jean and Joel, two Philadelphia-suburb expats now exiled to St. Paul, Minnesota, came to visit on Christmas Eve, as they do nearly every year. They still have lots of friends and family in southeastern Pennsylvania, so it's not just us they're in town to see.  Nevertheless, if the weather's nice and the trail conditions appropriate, we try to take long walk with them and to catch up on a year's news.

We decided to walk in the county park where a two-mile rails-to-trails project had been completed 1-1/2 years ago.  A portion of the trail runs alongside Harper's Run, one of my favorite photographic subjects.  Because of the persistent cold weather, rocky parts of the shallow stream had iced-up.

After we bid our friends adieu in mid-afternoon, we returned to the house, where I spent the rest of the daylight hours grading final exams from the graduate course I had just finished teaching.  Those exams, while generally good, certainly did not put me in a Christmas mood (which was already at low ebb, anyway, thank you very much Mr. Grinch).  However, as the sun set, we got ourselves ready to attend the annual Christmas Eve gala organized by one of our neighbors--a couple so preternaturally gregarious, generous, and welcoming and that you'd almost claim they'd been raised in Stepford.  Great food in prodigious quantities, a beautifully decorated house jammed with interesting people, and 56 varieties of red wine.  I challenge you not to have a good time!

Wild Turkeys vs.Great Blue Heron

Harper's Run, Summer

Last evening, I went for a bicycle ride in the large city park downstream of "my" natural area. My wife had to work late, and I'd had a large lunch and didn't need another meal, so I took advantage of this alignment of the stars to get some exercise. The only downside was that yesterday was among the hottest days of the year, with the temperature when I began at 5:30 p.m. still at 91 degrees!

Before setting off, I photographed Harper's Run, the third in my seasonal series of images of this stream taken from a footbridge over the creek. The lack of recent rains is reflected in the stream, which has dwindled to a trickle. However, if Hurricane Earl approaches the East Coast tomorrow, Harper's Run could become a raging torrent in a matter of minutes.

The bike trail through the city park is 10 miles long; I rode 7.5 miles of it for a total of 15 miles. The trail is paved and parallels the creek, so it's shaded. Most of the ride last night was relatively cool, but every once in a while--because of the topography, the wind, the orientation of the trail, or some other unknown reason--I'd puncture a mass of stifling hot air. Then, a few hundred yards later, I'd re-enter the cooler air. Ahh, relief!

On my return trip up the path, I came around a corner and had a view out over the creek where I captured this image. A group of three Wild Turkeys is on the sandbar on the left, and a Great Blue Heron is fishing the shallows on the right side of the creek. It suggested to me that the gang of turkey bullies had cornered the heron and driven it into the water. Of course, I know that's not the case, but I liked the juxtaposition. I made three images of the scene, and by the time I took the third shot the heron had flown away; the herons are skittish in this park, and I don't blame them because the park is very heavily used.