Sex in the State Forest

Well, I have learned, or maybe remembered, that setting an ad-blocker on when reading many blogs is the reason I cannot comment on them. If I turn the ad blocker off when I go to a site, then it allows my comment to be published! Annoying, but glad it is not an unsolvable glitch on my log-in to Blogger.

We are off this morning to go shoot elk in Pennsylvania.  NOT shoot with a gun, but shoot with a camera.  Our old age is making us want to get out and fill the bucket list more.  It is autumn and the elk are bugling.  If you have not heard that call of the male elk, you have missed an interesting natural phenomenon.  Our elk in this country have been wiped out in many areas and have had to be reintroduced.  There are now at least two large managed herds in the Eastern part of the U.S. and a larger herd in the Rocky Mountains and smaller herds elsewhere across the U.S.  There is a hunting season for them as well.

The males are entering their mating season and bugle to attract females and warn males.  Some do it so much that they lose their voices.   They can best be seen at dawn and dusk and I am stealing myself for crowds...hoping to find spaces away from all of those (like me) who are nature lovers.

It will be a five-hour drive and we will take several overnights in a local hotel.  We have outgrown the tent camping experience and the cabins are full.  The cheaper hotels are pretty rustic.  There will be no cell service in many parts of the large park and restaurants are only in certain areas.  Thus it will be a bit of a challenge for old folks who are used to things going their way.

We will head back home on Friday.  And in the following days I will have fun  culling and editing my photos and will share any if they are intersting.  Lokoing forward to the fall color as well as the great wild outdoors.