It's Slow Times

With eighteen days of rain out of 23 and the rising price of gas, I haven't been out and about much in the last several weeks. With the way the economy is going and newspapers cutting back on the use of free-lance photographers while they slowly reduce the size of the daily editions, I'm not selling too much. I'm not sure how much longer I'm going to be able to keep this blog going.

Anyway, here is this week's blog.

Eastern Tent Caterpillar -- Malacosoma Americanum

This shot of a Tree Swallow and the next one of her young in a nest box were shot over in Huntington County at the Juniata College Field Center on the shore of Raystown Lake.

Eastern Box Turtle
Known to reach 80 years in age, the box turtle matures at 5 years and aren't fully grown until they are about 20 years old.

Juniata College Grove Farm

White-tailed Rabbit

Male Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Here is a one minute video of the Grosbeak.

I know I've used pictures of the Red Bellied Woodpecker before but each one is different so I just keep shooting them when I can. Besides, there is a lot of greenery now instead of flying snow and this years chicks are stating to come to the feeders on their own

Here is the woodpecker video.

Bumblebee feeding on a Petunia.

Barn Cat at Blue Goose Farms, Nicktown, PA.
We get our fresh veggies through their CSA program all summer long.

Portulaca.

The bumblebee wasn't the only insect I found feeding around the petunias. I'm pretty sure this is a Spotted Camel Cricket -- Ceuthophilus Maculatus

Catbird doing its best to land on a suet feeder.

The last of this week's pictures shows the aftermath of two solid days of rain that dropped more than few inches of rain over this part of Cambria County, PA. This is the basement of the Old Cambria Heights Middle School Gym, also known as the Memorial Building. There are two different levels to the basement, with a couple feet difference between them. Several feet of water was in the basement covering both levels by the time the Hastings Volunteer Fire Department Station 55 got the call for assistance to help the Memorial Building's sump pumps.

Since the borough of Hastings was given the old building by the school district, a lot of money has been put into it. It now serves the community in several different ways. During the school year it is used by some of the local school districts as an alternative school, a small church group uses it for services on Sunday and local organizations use it for all kinds of activities. The community will be hard-pressed to replace the exercise equipment that was recently installed in the basement.