Every day isn't a happy one.

This is what it looks like outside at this very moment. The air is still and not a bird singing. It's one of those days where you don't want to talk with anyone.  I always try to post upbeat updates with the beautiful places I have seen. 

My mood is down this afternoon which is very rare for me. I've gotten news that I don't like, don't worry about me because I'm ok if you're one of my close and personal friends. I don't want anyone calling my Mother and getting her worried over nothing. The news I have gotten just saddens me because I can't find out what's exactly going on. I guess I just don't matter to some people I really care about. 

I will be ok because I refuse to let myself go into dark places but every day isn't a bright and cheery one. Hopefully I will get good news soon and everything will be back to normal. 

Elk bugling in Benezette, PA

Carol told me when I arrived that one of the things I must see up close was the elk up in Elk County, PA during their rutting season. I was definitely excited about this because we don't get to see this sort of stuff in Southern California. Carol and Annmarie have a friend named Donna that lives right in the center of Benezette. Benezette is the epicenter of elk rutting in the country. Thousands upon thousands of people make the treck up the mountains to see this and it's what keeps this areas economy going. 

Donna is the cutest little thing. She welcomed us into her home right across the street from the oldest hotel in the area, the Benezette Hotel where if you want to take a shower you share it with the other guests!  

Carol and I had decided that we were going to be full mountain people and not shower while we were there. We warned Donna about this and she just smiled at us as if she was going to put up extra glade cans around her home!

Donnas home is over 100 years old and has been updated many times throughout the years. She showed me a few pictures in her hallway of the house and the others that were there through the years. It was a booming town at a ne time and like many others depression hit it. Many of the original homes are gone now but hers is still there. 

Everything around here is centered around the elk that live in the surrounding area. The department of fish and game brought a small herd from th Colorado Rockies numbering around twenty five many years ago and now they keep it at around eight hundred. Hunting licenses are issued each year in order to thin the herd out and keep the herd at a healthy sustainable count. 

The town has set up viewing area from a safe distance for spectators. 

Up here friends are always ready to lend you a helping hand!

My first Red Squirrel sighting ever. 

Up here many of the roads you drive are just gravel and they go on for miles and miles and you don't come up on another car for hours. 

I'm thankful for all of my amazing friends. This week I made three new ones with Donna being one of them. Donna has two friends that were in town for the week and they had rented a small, quaint little cabin down a private road, away from all the traffic that clogs up the viewing areas. It was the perfect setting right in front of a large field where elk congregated in the evenings and bugled away and battled for their harems right in front of you. I want to thank Char and Tracy for inviting us into their camp for this amazing opportunity. 

They had a camp fire going all the time we were there and for me it was a moment where I could reflect on all the good life has to offer if you decide to let it into your life. I'm not religious at all, I understand there are others that have the need to gather and congregate to pray to their god but for me it's all about having a healthy balance in my mind and a connection with nature. I believe in the saying "to each their own". 

Here's Carol trying to find a cell signal!  

This is what we came to see. These two bulls kept bugling back and forth to each other and they each had good sized harems. The cabin we were watching from was above them and the homes you see behind them are up by the main road where people were stopped trying to see the battle over the houses. We had a perfect view of everything. 

This bull had thirteen cows with him. 

Two Bulls sizing each other up. 

People would just stop at the side of any road, us included, to take pictures of any elk that were seen. Of course everyone wants the best pictures of Bulls with an impressive set of horns. 

The elk rest for most part of the day and this big guy was right on the side of a road. 

Many campers also bring their horses up or they can go out with locals that take horseback tours of the surrounding mountains. These get you right up on the action but you better know how to ride a horse if you're going to do this. 

We also got to visit Carols favorite lake in the world. She doesn't like telling people the name of it because then it might become way to popular and I definitely got to see why she keeps it a secret. Thank you Care and Donna for sharing your secret with me. 

I had to do a selfie of course!

Donna getting her camera ready. 

There's a small Amish community close by because we saw several young ladies ride by and others walking. We found out that they were going around the other side of the lake to enjoy an afternoon on the small dock. 

The thing that ruined this afternoons trip to the lake was the workers doing some maintenance work on the lake and having their cars in the pictures. 

We had to go back the next morning in order to see if we could get pictures of the fog on the lake and we weren't disappointed. We were the only ones there that early and had the entire lake to ourselves. The moment was serene and truly peaceful. 

There's an Osprey nest in the lake and no one is allowed to do any boating while the osprey are nesting. 

We hung around until the fog lifted to capture other special moments. 

The water was so still it was like a mirror. 

I had to capture this moment. I'm not sure if they tried to color coordinate or not but this was something I wanted to remember. 

Carol found the remains of a fish carcass and many would think of it being gross but I rather look at it through my lense and see the beauty of its afterlife!

Sorry for the bad lighting on this picture but I had to show how close we could get to the Bulls safely when they were resting in the daytime. 

This country is so beautiful and I only wish more people would get off the beaten path and get out there and see it like I'm being able to. 

My first time seeing a real beaver dam out in the wild. Notice how the water above the dam is so still in the pond it's like a mirror and below the small amount of water flowing down a gentle creek. 

Carol and Donna below the beaver dam. Notice all the tree trunks and branches that the Beavers used to create their dam up above to the left. 

The locals take one moment at a time and just relax. Nothing is on a clock up here!

Leaving this place was hard. It's just another example of the true beauty I've been fortunate to experience thanks to the generosity of my friends that are willing to share it with me. 

Thank you Donna for your generosity and now I know why you decided to retire up here in your own little piece of paradise!

As always I like to take a picture with my friends right before I leave their home and I surprised Donna and didn't give her time to get dressed up. This doesn't matter to me because she's beautiful no matter what she is wearing. 

Conowingo Dam

It's Sunday morning and it will be a catching up day. This week has really been packed with adventure and many first for me. Last Sunday Carol and Annmarie took me to Conowingo Dam. 

Conowingo is located right over the Maryland border and it's a popular place for birders. For those of you that don't know what a birder is I will tell you. A birder is a person that goes around and likes to find birds and identifies them and each year they make a list of the birds they have seen and the location they have seen each species. A photographer is someone that takes pictures of birds professionally, or whatever other subject they choose. Then you have the crazy category which I guess I've become a member of and that is a birding photographer!  

We are never satisfied with the pictures we take of the birds. We always feel that we could have had the camera in another setting to get better lighting. Or in the case of this Osprey sitting on a power line, I wished she had been sitting on a tree branch for a more natural setting. 

Or that when she dove into the water I have had a bigger and better lense so that I could get a closer shot of her catching a fish......

Or coming out of the water with her catch.....

But in reality I should be grateful because she came back close enough to where I was standing and gave me the chance to photograph her eating her catch of fish right in front of me!

Conowingo is also popular with anyone that likes fishing. 

This guy was down at the water in front of us and it seemed that he was doing pretty good with his fishing until he pulled the fish out and they were pretty small. So he would throw them back in the water. 

People also go up there to walk their differences go. This guy not only caught my attention because of the three Airdales but check out those shorts!  

Conowingo is famous for the gathering of Bald Eagles in the Spring and winter. At this time of year there's only a few and they were not close enough to get good pictures unless you had a lense the size of a small child. I did get one flying overhead and way to dark to see the colors but I lightened this picture to show you that I got a picture of one!  

We also saw many cormorants fishing and fighting and chasing each other for the fish they caught. 

It seemed that many people were also out in their classic cars for a nice Sunday drive. Here are a few I got pictures of. 

It was a beautiful day driving down to Conowingo and I know I will be back someday in the dead of winter with a better camera and a much bigger lense!

I leave you with a photo of the Osprey shitting right in front of us and me getting a clear picture of it!