Category: Hamburg

No. 45. Hang on Sloopy, Hang On

Hang on Sloopy, Hang On
Hang on Sloopy, Hang On

This bird is a Nuthatch which is an unusual bird. You usually see it hanging or walking down a tree head first. This helps them find insects. Indeed this fellow prefers to eat seeds out of our sunflower seed feeder upside down. Apparently, it can’t get purchase to do that on our worm feeder, so hangs on the best it can.

No. 40. The Red Chair Challenge

riding-the-kerny-in-a-red-chair-sharp
Surfing the Kearny on a Red Chair

At the end of 2015 the members of the Art Plus Gallery in West Reading, PA, completely renovated the gallery. Among the changes was the purchase of a distinctive red chair to allow customers to view the gallery’s extensive online offerings on a tablet computer. Members of the coop decided to challenge each other to creatively depict the red chair. The challenge is a kind of silly, but kind of fun branding exercise.

During the summer months, the Kernsville Dam became a popular site for youth, many from out-of-state, to surf the dam. Following a drowning death and a plague of litter, the road leading to the dam has been closed with a barrier. State and Tilden Township Police enforce trespassing regulations.

No. 32. Dam Sliding Double-Take

I was surprised when I first learned, earlier this summer, about young people sliding down the Kernsville Dam. A YouTube video about the sliders went viral not long ago attracting hundreds of young people from all over the East Coast to The Peace Rock (see some of my pictures) and the Kernsville Dam. Nevertheless, I decided to have some photo fun to capture the action. Further attention was drawn to The Rock by a drowning (nearly an annual event) in the rapidly moving current  in the river below in July.

When I was in high school in the early 1960s we often swam about a mile upstream at what is now called the Peace Rock, frequently jumping off the 40-foot outcropping into a deep channel of the Schuylkill river below. I never heard of anyone dam sliding. Then again, in those years the boat ramp just upstream from the dam was active and water skiing was common. The lake really isn’t fit for that kind of activity today.

The Rock has become a public nuisance. Roads are blocked by illegally parked cars. There is no parking along a narrow mountain road and there are no facilities. Mountains of trash and human waste piled up. Recently volunteers organized by Blue Mountain Wildlife collected 75 bags of trash in an effort to clean up the area. Read about it here.

State police have announced they will tow and ticket cars and arrest trespassers. See the Hamburg Item.

No. 24. Flowering Procrastination

Everyone likes to photograph flowers, including me. Contrarian that I am, however, I’ve resisted posting them to my blog. Procrastinating until I couldn’t bear it any longer. So here’s a big package. This year it seemed as though Mother Nature took her time with the blossoms. Meanwhile, all the grasses sprouted tall with great abandon in the cool weather. Mother Nature has stopped her procrastination, and so have I.