January in Pennsylvania

Flag and flamingo at the end of the driveway, lit with only the headlights of the van.

Icicles hanging from the roof of a local beer garden.

One of two cats that were dropped off here on the ridge, a common occurrence. Our own cat hasn't been seen for months, so being in need of a cat, we and the stray cats have mutually adopted each other.

Our second new cat is this one-eyed fellow. We haven't come up with a name for either cat yet, but our daughter calls this one Bowie. I'm not so sure about the name because I haven't heard the cat sing yet.

Just played with the camera and PhotoShop to get this different view of my Sirius radio.

Looking through the window at Connie's Cuts in downtown Northern Cambria, Pennsylvania. Every wall in the barbershop is covered in Steelers' memorabilia.

Dodge Ram logo located in the middle of my steering wheel.

Gate house at the Schwab Estate, Loretto, PA.

Northern Cambria High School Men's Basketball team.

Jesse Carnevali looks for two against Laurel Valley.

Anthony Penska tries to block the shot by Laurel Valley's Patrick Hall.

These apartments were once the chicken coops at the old Charles Schwab estate in Loretto, PA.

I've been driving by this farm for 20 years. This is my first photograph of it.

Close-up of the shed and silos. From this perspective the silos look really huge.

The buses start to line up at Cambria Heights Middle School on a sunny Thursday afternoon.

Ornamental grass in the snow.

Leafless tree in a snowy field in brilliant black and white.

Flagpole and lamppost at the Cambria Heights Middle School.

I'm not sure how this idea is going to work, but I'm hoping to take pictures of a USMC Bulldog that hangs from my van rear-view mirror with various locations showing in the background through the windshield.

Cambria Heights Middle School, Patton, PA.

Donkey Basketball and Birds

With highs only in the teens and twenties, for almost every day for a week, I stayed pretty close to home. Most of the photographs this week deal with the birds and a game of Donkey Basketball held at Glendale Area High School on Saturday night.

Cactus sitting in my window.

I shot this picture on a back road on my way to Patton, PA.

This field is along Ridge Road, Elder Township, Cambria County, PA.

Another shot on Ridge Road looking west toward the Westrick Farm.

Driving thru Sankertown, PA on my way home from the doctor's office I stopped to shoot this snow covered tank.

Me in the yard, Temperature 3.2 degrees F.

The Glendale High School Band Boosters sponsored a donkey basketball game on Saturday night. I couldn't believe how many people turned out for the festivities.

This little guy was out on the court waiting for the game to begin.

Band member trying to mount his mule.

The object of the game is to get the ball into the basket without falling off your donkey.

A member of the pink team riding down the sidelines heading for the basket.

The only way to get the ball is to get close enough to it but the catch is you have bring your donkey with you and they don't listen very well.

"Now that I have the ball and if this animal will listen to directions I can score a basket."

A meeting of the minds.

A Mourning Dove dives off the feeder headed to the water bowl.

A female Red-bellied Woodpecker trying to land on the suet feeder which is occupied by a male Yellow-bellied Sapsucker.

Female Downy Woodpecker also looking to land on the feed with the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker.

Female Cardinal landing.

The Yellow-bellied Sapsucker tries to reclaim the suet feeder.

It was a good day for shooting birds at the suet feeder. This is a pair of Downy Woodpeckers.

Female Red-bellied Woodpecker on one of her few trips to the feeders.

White-breasted nuthatch on the wing.

The best shot that I have of the male Yellow-bellied Sapsucker at the feeder. This is the first time this year that a yellow-bellied showed up in the yard and right now it appears it only spent two days before moving on.

I had originally identified these guys as Goldfinches. But I got a call and an email from my buddy Dave, who really knows his birds, informing me that the Pine Siskin has been observed in our area. Dave reviewed this picture and said that these were indeed Pine Siskin -- Carduelis pinus. The Pine Siskin is not from this area and is here only because of the food shortage in it's normal range north of us. This is the first time they have visited our feeders.
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Pine_Siskin.html

Sno Bound

As much as I like the changing of the seasons here in Pennsylvania, I'm already sick of winter. Maybe that's because I've fallen in the last week while shooting an assignment. I got a really deep bruise on my elbow that's now a lovely shade of purple and twisted my back to the point that the muscles twitch to their own rhythm.

Red bell on pine branch.

A seasonal display piece still sitting out on the deck.

On the outside, looking in.
Right now, anything green is a welcomed site.

I watched this squirrel for about five minutes when I realized that he had a routine going. He would leap about three feet into the air to get onto the feeder,

then he would jump off,

run around this dead stump and start all over again.

An old truck sitting next to a blue garage in Elder townshp, outside of Hastings.

The front end and frame are about the only pieces left of a car that's been used as a training platform for the Hastings Volunteer Fire Department.

Side one ...

and Side Two of an old trailer being used for storage.

Old farm house on Old Route 36 in Elder Township.

Fence Post.

View of Hastings borough, Cambria County, Pennsyvlania.

Hastings Community Park.
The roller hockey rink is in the foreground, the swimming pool and tennis courts are in the middle and the park pavilians and playground are in the back.

This sign is at the site of a fatal fire that took place in 2005 in Hastings.

The winter weather keeps the Conemaugh MedSTAR helicopter on the pad at Miner's Medical Center in Hastings, PA.

One of these days I'll find out what this horse's name is. I have several pictures of it.

Obviously I've tweaked this picture a little bit in PhotoShop. The original photograph will appear in this week's issue of The Star-Courier, the local weekly newspaper that I shoot for. I used one of the filter options in PhotoShop called neon glo. I achieved this effect by using black as the primary color.