We have finally caught up with getting settled in our summer digs at Thousand Trails Hershey. Sort of! We have been busy spending lots of money stocking the kitchen, getting bedding, area rugs for the wood floors, a new recliner chair and a wide range of pots and pans and utensils and more.
With some of that behind us, I have some time to prepare this Blog Post to share with you.
We arrived on April 10 and unpacked the U-Haul trailer we used to transport more stuff we had not left here last Fall. With packing boxes on the floor, we were grateful to fall into our new bed that first night!
Next day Randy picked us up and drove to Bethlehem so we could attend a concert in which Kendalyn had been selected to perform. The concert was sponsored by the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association and the singers were selected by their individual schools sixth grades. Each school selected 5 or 6 students from their classes for about 150 singers in the choir.
Photography was thankfully not allowed during the performance as it was being professionally recorded for sale. I say thankfully because we have experienced over-eager parents standing with their cell phones, cameras or iPads recording complete events making it impossible to see beyond them. Below is the group before the singing began. I tied to mark Kendie in the photo but couldn't make it work.
After the concert we went to Red Robin to celebrate by overeating. Below is Nanny and Kendalyn with the remains of a serving of onion rings.
Spring is springing all around the park and so I am able to have some fun taking photos of the emerging foliage as well as the avian population. Thanks to Randy and his cell phone for the photo.
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This is a Belted Kingfisher taken at just about the limit of my camera's zoom capability. It flies fast, hits the water for a bite and then sits to dry its feathers! |
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There are a few Mallards here and so we expect some chicks a little later. Here is a particularly beautiful female, probably sporting high mating plumage! |
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There are many flowering trees on the property. We have not been here this early in the year before so we are enjoying Nature's show. |
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Sadly I do not know the varieties of the trees. These are at the Visitor Center just as one enters the Preserve. |
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Violets are everywhere! |
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Including some White Violets. I learned there are 8 varieties of White Violets in the Eastern US, but did not take the time to identify this specific one. |
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Of course there are lots of Canada Geese making lots of noise and dirt. There is an injured one that comes around our site frequently. It has a leg injury causing a decided limp when it walks, but it appears none the worse for wear for it. |
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This Greater Yellowlegs is a new one for us albeit a very common bird around inland lakes and ponds. Interestingly it is not well studied because of its habit of nesting in difficult to reach, mosquito-infested woodland ponds. No one wants to go there, I guess! |
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Guys Only! Three male Mallards. |
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There are lots of Killdeer running around and fishing in the pond this year. Looks like it only has one leg, but it is in the roosting pose on one leg here. |
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Killdeer nest pretty much in the open and here in this park, they like to nest in the gravel parking lots! Staff puts these old folding chairs over the nests when they spot them to protect them from cars. As I approached, she abandoned the nest and I was able to photograph the clutch of four eggs below. Now I know why they like the gravel! |
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The eggs look a lot like stones. |
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I have seen Killdeer try to distract an interloper away from the nest by running around dragging a wing to feign injury, but this one took it to a whole new level. She, I will assume it is the female, flopped down, exposing her orange under feathers and flailed and rolled on the ground in an effort to draw me away from her eggs. |
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Here and below more beauty on the trees. |
Oh, one more thing! We also got a newer car to make the journeys between Pennsylvania and Florida. Our old Suzuki was just a bit too small, recall the U-Haul, to hold all we have to carry and it was getting to the point of needing some expensive repairs. It served us well with 128,000 miles of driving, on and off road, and 55,000 miles being towed around the country behind the Motorhome.
Below is our 2012 Ford Escape which has much more cargo space, rides a bit more comfortably and has under 30,000 miles. My only hesitancy is that it is black and shows all the dust and pollen. But the dealer has Free Carwashes and they are only 6 miles away. We collected our first wash two days ago.
That will be all for this time. Stay tuned for more news and pictures as our adventure continues.
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Since this was posted, the Killdeer eggs have hatched and I was able to dodge the adult birds long enough to grab a quick shot of the well camouflaged chicks. I only count three so one may not have hatched or fell prey to a critter.
Look carefully just below the bar of the chair and you will see two black beaks pointing right. The third is looking the other way just under the curve of the chair and only a part of its head and some of its back are visible. The Mommy and Daddy were not happy with my incursion so close the their charges!
Below I have isolated and enlarged one of the chicks.
Some more trees have burst into bloom since the original post and they are below.
And finally, my most loyal viewer has reminded me to include photos of Dixie so all can see she is still healthy and active. She gets two trips a day leading the tricycle around the various roads of the park. And she sleeps a lot!
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This was taken at one of the motels we stayed in during our return trip to Hershey earlier in April.
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And here she is in her favorite position to play with her stuffed alligator. This was taken here in Hershey recently.
That will conclude the updates to this post. Thanks for reading my blog. |