Barns of 2007

During my journeys, I will always stop and take pictures of interesting barns. Here are a few from my 2007 travels.

A Mail Pouch tobacco barn in Bedford County Pa. You do not see many of these barns today.



One of my trip this summer was to Iowa. The weather was turning bad with a several cold front moving through. If the sky looks like it could spawn a tornado, you are correct. I spent 30 minutes in a hail storm (the rental car looked great!!) and missed several tornadoes by a few miles.





This is an old stone barn located in central Bucks County. A well preserved example of 1800's farming.





The final barn for the year is part of the Jordan farm located in Stewartstown, Pa.

Antietam Battlefield Illumination

December 1, 2007

Held on the first Saturday of December, the National Park Service and many volunteers hold an annual illumination on the Antietam Battlefield. Antietam was the bloodiest one day battle of the Civil War with 23,110 soldiers killed, wounded or missing. Approximately 1,400 volunteers place the 23,000 luminaries over the battlefield. It is truly an amazing sight which every person should experience. A few photos from the evening.



Dunker Church



On the battlefield and along Old Hagerstown Pike

Yellowstone Day 4

Final day in the park began looking for Agates in the area from Saturday. No luck and we headed east. It was a very quiet morning in the park. There was not much moving. The park service takes the speed limits very seriously. This is the latest enforcement method.



I spent the previous three days attempting to photograph these ducks and skimmers. Every time I got close, they took off. Finally, I was rewarded with them staying in place long enough to snap a few photos.



While the Agates remained elusive, I did locate the Druids who had made a kill earlier in the morning. They took down a large bull elk about 1/2 mile from the road. This is about the best of the batch of pictures as the kill site was not easy to photograph.



This ended the trip on a successful note. As I was headed to relax at Chico Hot Springs, there was a road kill with several bald and golden eagles. Another car scared them off the roadkill but this guy few close enough to get a few photos.



I hope you have enjoyed the photos.

Yellowstone Day 3

Day 3 started looking for the wolves which we were told to be located around the Yellowstone Picnic area. Once located around mid morning, they were on an opposite ridge line approximately 3/4 of a mile away. In an instant, they took off after a herd of elk. It was too distant to photograph, it was very cool to the 16 wolves of the Agate pack chasing down the elk herd. They were not successful and disappeared down the valley. We moved on to search out other opportunities.

I found several good landscape opportunities since the sun was not poking through.



Later in the day, the Agate pack was again sighted and the youngsters spend a few hours chasing these 3 elks. Look to the right of the rock and you will see a large grey wolf.



The evening ended with some good light on the snow covered hills.

Yellowstone Day 2

Another good day in Yellowstone. The day started with cold and breaks in the clouds. Made the long drive out into Lamar and found this big fella lying in the road. He was in no hurry to go anywhere.



After making our way around him, headed into the east end of Lamar. Just short of Pebble Creek, the wolf watchers saw 3 blacks and a gray. A short time later they were sighted to the west and we headed that way. They were in the area of a previous kill. Most were on the far side of the valley and difficult to photograph. This grey was in the middle of the valley.



The remainder of the day was spent checking out the valley and photographing various wildlife. Hope you enjoy.

Yellowstone Day 1

The winter trip to Yellowstone started Wednesday with me forgetting to bring my winter jacket. However, they sell winter jackets in Bozeman. Great way to spend $130. : )

Day 1 of the trip started cold with light snow. Headed out around 7AM and found nothing of note. The wolves which have been active for the past few weeks were no where to be seen. Past evidence of the wolves is this elk carcass located in the middle of Soda Butte Creek. All you can see remaining is the antler. This coyote is hoping to pick up a scrap or two from the elk.



Driving around I found a few decent winter landscapes. The snow made it difficult to shoot.



Many of the elk and buffalo are bedded down to conserve energy during the winter. This big guy was hiding with a few friends in the shelter of the tree line.



Later in the day I was able to scare up a few ducks on the Lamar River and coyote who was good enough to pose on a rock.



Last set of photos of the day was a large drift with the only sun of the day.



More to follow tomorrow. Hopefully the wolves will appear.