Yellow Butter ...

“This sky where we live is no place to lose your wings so love, love, love.”

                           ~ Hafiz

                            ~ 1315-1390 
A beautiful Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly alights in the soft sweetness of a June evening along the Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor (D&L Trail) at Lehigh Gap.

In the shadow of the Kittatinny Ridge, also called Blue Mountain, the Lehigh Gap in Slatington, Pennsylvania, is a crossroads where the Lehigh Gap Nature Center’s trails connect two historic trails – the Appalachian Trail and the Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor (D&L Trail). 

The Appalachian Trail, a foot path, follows the ridge on both sides of the Lehigh Gap, running 1,245 miles south to Georgia and 930 miles north to Maine. Running from Wilkes-Barre to Bristol, the D&L Trail passes through the Lehigh and Delaware rivers and their canals in Pennsylvania.

Baby And Mama On The Range ...

“The wildlife and its habitat cannot speak, so we must and we will …”

              ~ Theodore Roosevelt

                 ~ 1858-1919

             ~ Naturalist & Conservationist

          ~26^th President of the

                  United States of America

                        ~ 1901-1909

What a sweet baby bison, and the first I’ve ever photographed!

I captured this beautiful female American Bison calf with her mother on a late August evening three months after her birth at Trexler Nature Preserve, Schnecksville, Pennsylvania, where bison live as a herd on the hillsides of the 1,100-acre preserve’s Central Range.

When the late General Harry C. Trexler established the preserve in the early 1900s, he did it to save the American bison, elk and white-tailed deer from extinction and assure the species’ survival.

A conservationist along the lines of Theodore Roosevelt and John Muir, General Trexler understood the importance of nature and preserving wildlife in its natural habitat.

A successful businessman who amassed a fortune in the timber and cement industries and founded the Pennsylvania Power and Light Company, General Trexler began purchasing small farms in the low hills of Lehigh County in 1906. By 1913, he had transported eight bison and 20 Virginia white-tailed deer to the preserve. The elk followed soon after.

When General Trexler died in 1933, he bequeathed the property to the residents of Lehigh County. Today, the Trexler Nature Preserve is open to the public for passive recreation and nature watching.

The American Bison was designated the first national mammal of the United States on May 9, 2016. The majestic bison joins the bald eagle as a national symbol.

The Art Of The Swan ...

“Until you spread your wings, you will have no idea how far you can fly.”

              ~ Napolean Bonaparte

                     ~ 1769-1821 
A beautiful mute swan artfully flashes its wingspan on Lake Muhlenberg in this high contrast monochrome shot I captured on a late August evening at Cedar Creek Parkway, Allentown, Pennsylvania.