I Got You Babe ...

“… I got flowers in the spring, I got you to wear my ring

And when I’m sad, you’re a clown

And if I get scared, you’re always around

So let them say your hair’s too long

Cause I don’t care with you I can’t go wrong

Then put your little hand in mine

There ain’t no hill or mountain we can’t climb

 

Babe

I got you babe, I got you babe

 

I got you to hold my hand

I got you to understand

I got you to walk with me

I got you to talk with me

I got you to kiss goodnight

I got you to hold me tight

I got you, I won’t let go

I got you to love me so

 

I got you babe”

 

~ “I Got You Babe”

     ~ Sonny & Cher

          ~ 1965

 

In the waning days of winter, these common merganser drake & hen ducks are perfectly paired and perched together, dreaming of spring’s arrival in the waters of the Jordan Creek along the Jordan Creek Greenway on a March afternoon at Covered Bridge Park, Orefield, Pennsylvania.

The common merganser or goosander is a large seaduck of rivers and lakes in forested areas of Europe, Asia & North America. The common merganser eats fish and nests in holes in trees.

 

Northern Flicker On The Edge of Spring ...

 “A forest bird never wants a cage.”

   ~ Henrik Ibsen

            ~ 1828 ~ 1906

I spotted this yellow-shafted Northern Flicker – the first I’ve ever captured in a photo – nestled in the grass gazing upon the looming late winter sunset of a March day at Lehigh Parkway, Allentown, Pennsylvania.

According to All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Northern Flickers are large, brown woodpeckers with a gentle expression and handsome black-scalloped plumage. On walks, don’t be surprised if you scare one up from the ground. It’s not where you’d expect to find a woodpecker, but flickers eat mainly ants and beetles, digging for them with their unusual, slightly curved bill. When they fly you’ll see a flash of color in the wings – yellow if you’re in the East, red if you’re in the West – and a bright white flash on the rump.

Snow Cardinal ...

“Faith is the bird that feels the light when the dawn is still dark.”

    ~ Rabindranath Tagore

     ~ 1861 ~ 1941

 

A beautiful male North American Cardinal brings a pop of red to an early March snowfall on a beautiful late winter afternoon at Trexler Memorial Park, Allentown, Pennsylvania.

 

Whistle Stop ...

“There’s something about the sound of a train that’s very romantic and nostalgic and hopeful.”

       ~ Paul Simon

       ~ American musician

         ~ born 1941

The recently restored Dragon Cement Co. Inc. No. 1 railroad car located along the Ironton Rail Trail ~ which which loops more than nine miles through Whitehall Township, the Borough of Coplay and North Whitehall Township, Pennsylvania ~ is depicted in this painterly, HDR image I captured on a late March afternoon in early spring.

A Whistle Sign can be seen in front of the car with the description: “This whistle sign once stood to the west of the Center Street Stiles Crossing on the Ironton Railroad. It was saved on March 1990 by John and Jim Rowland just prior to the scrapping of the railroad.”

In rail transport, a whistle sign ~ or whistle post or whistle board ~ is a sign marking a location where a train driver is required to sound the horn or whistle.

The Ironton Railroad was a shortline railroad in Lehigh County. Originally built in 1861 to haul iron ore and limestone to blast furnaces along the Lehigh River, traffic later shifted to carrying Portland Cement when local iron mining declined in the early 20^th century. Much of the railroad had already been abandoned when it became part of Conrail in 1976, and the last of its trackage was removed in 1984.

 

In 1996, Whitehall Township purchased 9.2 miles of the right-of-way from Conrail, transforming it into the Ironton Rail Trail.

 

Dragon Cement Co. is a cement supplier in Thomaston, Maine.