One of my favorite day trips is to Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area, a near 6,000 acre tract managed by the Pennsylvania Game Commission primarily for waterfowl, grassland nesting birds, and wetland dependent species. The facility hosts an interactive visitor center, seasonal wildlife driving tour, and over twenty miles of hiking trails. There are other recreational activities available such as wildlife viewing, boating, special hunts, and picnicking. Middle Creek is one of just six Globally Important Bird Areas in the state and straddles Lancaster and Lebanon counties.
I particularly like the view of these hills from the wildlife driving tour road.
This tree swallow doesn’t seem to like me.It was fun to see this rabbit near the road.It was even better when a friend joined.
Laughlintown is located in Ligonier Township, Westmoreland County. It is located on U.S. Route 30, 3 miles southeast of Ligonier.
The town is named after Robert Laughlin. The Compass Inn, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is located here, as are the Rolling Rock Club and The Washington Furnace Inn. However, I think for many the notable landmark is this bakery:
I couldn’t resist buying some pie and baklava here. Both were delicious. The menu also includes pizza and sandwiches. Across the street is the Compass Inn property. The Inn is a historic inn and tavern. It is a 2 1/2-story, five bay log and stone building in a vernacular Georgian style. The original section was built in 1799, and it is three bays wide. The two bay stone section was added in the 1820s. A clapboarded frame section was added in 1862. It was restored in 1970, and operated as a local history museum. The property includes a rebuilt barn and blacksmith shop.
The barn.The Compass Inn. Double barn stars on the adjacent property.
Many forestry district offices seem to be in out of the way locations. This one is right on Route 30 in Laughlintown. They are great stops for maps and information.
Lake Somerset is a 253-acre impoundment just north of Somerset (duh). It is owned by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and managed by the Fish and Boat Commission for public fishing and boating. The Commission’s Southwest Region Office is located at the lake. I stopped on a previous trip and couldn’t resist a return visit. It was great spot for some more Spring birding.
We will start at the north end and work our way south.A very nice fishing pier.These geese had several youngsters.
Latrobe is a city in Westmoreland County, with a population of 8,060 as of the 2020 census. Latrobe was incorporated as a borough in 1854, and as a city in 1999.
Latrobe is known as the home of the Latrobe Brewery, the original brewer of Rolling Rock beer. Latrobe was also the birthplace and childhood home of children’s television personality Fred Rogers and former professional golfer Arnold Palmer. The nearby airport is named after Palmer.
The banana split was invented in Latrobe by David Strickler in 1904. The city is also home to the training camp of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Latrobe was long recognized as the site of the first professional American football game in 1895 until research found an 1892 game with paid players.
The banana split is claimed to have been invented in 1904 in Latrobe by David Evans Strickler at the pharmacy that later became named Strickler’s Drug Store. In 2004, the National Ice Cream Retailers Association certified Latrobe as the birthplace of the banana split. The town holds an annual festival in honor of the dessert.
The train station, listed on the National Register of Historic Places.Latrobe Presbyterian Church.
The Hubble 35th Anniversary Challenge for July put the emphasis on globular clusters. These dense star formations are forgiving astrophotography targets, so this month’s batch of photos may be a bit better than the usual mixed bag of results.
A globular cluster is a spherical collection of stars, typically containing hundreds of thousands or even millions of stars, all gravitationally bound together. These clusters are ancient, with their stars often being among the oldest in their host galaxies, and they orbit the galactic core in a halo-like structure.
One of the most famous is Messier 13 (M 13 or NGC 6205) in the constellation Hercules , which contains several hundred thousand stars. Messier 13 was discovered by Edmond Halley in 1714, and cataloged by Charles Messier on June 1, 1764, into his list of objects not to mistake for comets; Messier’s list, including Messier 13, eventually became known as the Messier catalog. Messier 13 is often described by astronomers as the most magnificent globular cluster visible to northern observers.
M 13
Messier 92 (also known as M92, M 92, or NGC 6341) is a globular cluster of stars also in the constellation of Hercules. It was discovered by Johann Elert Bode on December 27, 1777, then published in the Berliner Astronomisches Jahrbuch during 1779. It was inadvertently rediscovered by Charles Messier on March 18, 1781, and added as the 92nd entry in his catalog. William Herschel first resolved individual stars in 1783.
It is one of the brighter of its sort in apparent magnitude in the northern hemisphere and in its absolute magnitude in the galaxy, but it is often overlooked by amateur astronomers due to proximity to bright Messier 13. Though when compared to M13, M92 is only slightly less bright, but about 1/3 less extended. It is visible to the naked eye under very good viewing conditions.With a small telescope, M92 can be seen as a smudge even in a severely light-polluted sky.
M 92
Messier 107 or M107, also known as NGC 6171 or the Crucifix Cluster, is a very loose globular cluster in a southern part of the sky in Ophiuchus, and is the last object in the Messier Catalog. It was discovered by Pierre Méchain in April 1782, then independently by William Herschel in 1793. Herschel’s son, John, in his 1864 General Catalog, described it as a “globular cluster of stars, large, very rich, very much compressed, round, well resolved, clearly consisting of stars”
M 107
Messier 62 or M62, also known as NGC 6266 or the Flickering Globular Cluster, is a globular cluster of stars in the south of the equatorial constellation of Ophiuchus. It was discovered in 1771 by Charles Messier, then added to his catalog eight years later.
M62 is among the ten most massive and luminous globular clusters in the Milky Way, showing an integrated absolute magnitude of −9.18. It is essentially spherical.
The Winnie Palmer Nature Reserve is a 50 acre nature reserve adjacent to Saint Vincent College in Latrobe. The Reserve includes native landscapes, trails, meadows, gardens, an Environmental Learning Barn, Nature Explore Certified play spaces, pond, wetlands, and more. The property is open to the public for recreation, conservation, and education.
The reserve is named after Winnie Palmer, the wife of famed golfer Arnold Palmer, who was instrumental in the preservation of the land. More about the Reserve can be found on their website. at http://www.wpnr.org/ .
Beautiful open meadow habitat. The Environmental :Learning Barn.Fantastic views of St. Vincent College.
On the way back to Ligonier I stopped to take a look at the Loyalhanna Creek Causeway. The creek is popular with boaters and recreational trout fishermen.
It’s hard to imagine that the area that is now Linn Run State Park was once a clear cut wasteland. It is now covered by second -growth forest, which frames the tumbling and cascading Linn Run.
Near the Fish Run trail head, there is some signage recording the logging history of the area. The Pittsburgh, Westmoreland and Somerset Railroad traversed Laurel Mountain to service logging activities there. The route taxed the limits of the steam locomotives, which could refill their boilers at a water station, which was created by diverting the creek to form a pond. There was also a siding in this area to slow down run-away trains.
The town of Ligonier makes a great homebase or stopover for food or drinks when exploring the Laurel Highlands. I stopped by during my recent trip to the area for some lunch and to see the town, which is also home to historic Fort Ligonier.
This gazebo sits in the middle of the town square.I couldn’t resist photographing this birdhouse.My kind of store. Coffee shops and ice cream are also to be had in the heart of town.The post office.Can you tell what is sold in the red brick building?An old train station just outside of downtown.
Pictured below are the regular visitors to my cabin at Linn Run State Park. I also heard a lot of birdsong around th cabin in mid May, and the surrounding park and forest has an abundance of wildlife. The bird watching on the trip was a success, chalking up a few more birds for my life list and registering a large number of species (for me at least).
This chipmunk has found a mouthful of something.Robins are abundant near the cabin (and everywhere else).Wildflowers were plentiful in May.The undercut below these trees would make a good hole for trout. The water is quite swift here, however.
My submission for the Hubble Challenge for June consisted of a striking face-on spiral galaxy, some pretty globular clusters and another spiral galaxy. with hot star forming regions. You can read more about the Hubble 35th Anniversary Challenge on the Night Sky page.
The two globular clusters, M3 and M5, proved to be forgiving astrophotography targets. Messier 3 (M3) is a brilliant globular cluster located in the constellation Canes Venatici. It’s a popular target for amateur astronomers, especially during “globular season” in the spring. Easily visible with binoculars and stunning through a telescope, M3 is known for its large size, high concentration of stars, and numerous variable stars. It lies about 34,000 light years from Earth.
M3
Messier 5 (M5) is a bright globular star cluster located in the constellation Serpens, approximately 24,500 light-years from Earth. It’s one of the oldest globular clusters in our galaxy, with an estimated age of 13 billion years. M5 is visible with binoculars under dark skies and is a popular target for both visual observers and astrophotographers.
M5
Messier 101, also known as the Pinwheel Galaxy, is a face-on spiral galaxy located in the constellation Ursa Major. It’s a stunning example of a classic spiral galaxy, with bright, luminous arms and extensive star-forming regions. At a distance of 22 to 25 million light-years, it’s a relatively close galaxy and is known for its large size, nearly twice the diameter of our Milky Way. This galaxy was barely discernible in photographs for some reason, but I was able to tease some detail out of it.
M101
NGC 5248 (also known as Caldwell 45 or C45) is a compact intermediate spiral galaxy in the constellation Boötes. NGC 5248 is a member of the NGC 5248 Group of galaxies, itself one of the Virgo III Groups strung out to the east of the Virgo Supercluster of galaxies. It is a cute, but petite, spiral here.
