State Gamelands and Beltzville State Park (9-Jan-2017)

This was a frigid day and I my intention was to just take a couple of shot walks around Beltzville Lake on gamelands and within the state park. The whole idea was to just check out the areas to see what needed to be done when the weather warmed up. The first stop was on gamelands that I removed a good deal of trash from last year. Both by the road and by the lake at this site are problem areas and I had hoped it didn't get too bad since my last clean-up. Both sites were a mess, but I don't think either were as bad as they were last year.

Like other sites around the lake an old road runs into the water here, making it easy access from Pohopocco Drive. This is most likely why this area gets trashed a little more than others around the lake. This is what the bank looked like. It was cold and I knew this trash wasn't going anywhere, so I did pick up a few items, but left most everything for a warmer day. 

Not far off the bank there was a lone male Bufflehead swimming and sometimes diving down into the lake. There was other waterfowl on the lake, but everything else was on the far shore. 

I tried sticking only to recyclable items, a few other things got picked up as well. The shotgun shells were all from along the closed roadway that now acts as a path to the lake. This is one site I definitely will be back to for the rest of the trash. 

After a short warm up in the car it was off to the next stop at the Pine Run Boat Launch. The walk here was very short and I didn't pick up much at all. 

I did see a few birds at this stop. Like this Mockingbird that was hanging out on the far edge of the parking area. 

This pair of Red-Tailed Hawks were perched in the trees above the fields at this stop as well. 

The photo on the left was of the few items I picked up at the Pine Run stop. The cans on the right I grabbed at my last stop of the day by the spillway below the dam. From these stops I did pick up a few items, but mainly learned what spots around the lake need the most work when the weather warms up.

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Mauch Chunk Lake (7-Jan-2017)

Way too cold for a clean-up. I still found myself out hiking the trails on the upper portion of Mauch Chunk Lake. From the observation blind, I could see the very few using this cold day to get out on the water to fish. 

There wasn't much trash along the trails. These items were it.

Earlier in the day I had taken a ride out to Leaser Lake. On the way there I got to see this flock of Snow Geese on one of the many farms in the northern part of Lehigh County. At this time of year large flocks of Snow Geese can be a common sight. 

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Lehigh River (5-Jan-2017)

Cloudy and colder than the previous day I was back to the Lehigh River in the Lehigh Gorge State Park. This time I took the D&L Trail up river to another flood plain I did a lot of work on last year. I found that this wasn't the best area to be working on at this time of year. I think it generally sees less sun than the area I worked on the day prior and there were large sections with snow cover, ice and frozen ground. 

I had to kick this bucket from one of the whitewater companies in order to break it loose from the frozen sand. Too many of these buckets are left in our river! If you care, please contact the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission and tell them you want the whitewater companies to pay for the items their patrons leave behind in our rivers!

Someone very kindly bagged up their bottles. If only they took them along when they left. 

The ice along the rivers edge not only made it hard to find trash, but hard to walk as well. 

Even with the less than ideal conditions I still found and was able to remove items. Though I had to leave behind several pieces of footwear frozen into the ground.

Less than the day before, still a good amount for the time of year! 

When I returned home I found it odd that there were no birds at my feeders until I noticed this in one of my trees. It is a Cooper's Hawk. Cooper's Hawks specialize in hunting song birds. If you feed birds in your backyard there is a good chance you will have a Cooper's Hawk stop by from time to time.

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Lehigh River (4-Jan-2017)

First river clean-up of the year! I tend to stay away from water during the winter months, but it was a nice day and there wasn't much snow cover on the ground. I kept this clean-up close to home and went to the Glen Onoco Access of the Lehigh Gorge State Park where I took a lot of tires out last year. 

 Some of the first items I found were in the water. You would think plastic forks float, but this one was on the bottom. The other item is a military pin. I would really like to know the story of the pin and how it made its way into the river.

I did about a half mile hike along an old section of canal to get to the flood plain area I spent a lot of time at last year. Going through this area, I am extremely pleased with the way it looks. Hardly any trash and a huge difference compared to what it was when I first started on it last year. 

I had really hoped to remove all of the tires from this area, but ones like these are still there. Some I do believe I can remove with the right tools, others I might not be able to get out. There are less than twenty tires still in this area. I have to talk to the DCNR about their removal, most will have to be dug up. I do intend on doing my best to get these gone, like all the others I have already removed.

From the top of the flood plain I decided to work my way down the edge of the river. I have been through this area, but did not spend as much time on it as I did the channels in the flood plain.  

Along the rivers edge I started finding the normal stuff. Including a lot of footwear I must have overlooked last year. I do believe I removed the partner to the blue shoe on another clean-up, just a little further down river from this spot.

Picked up three new pairs of shades to add to my collection. These were fancy, too bad they are missing a lens. 

This was a very odd spot to find this pool toy. It wasn't near any access point and it was up the bank. If you decide to go inner tubing on the Lehigh I would caution that using pool toys like this is not a good idea. These are not designed to run a river and pop easily. It is always best too, to wear a Personal Floatation Device in addition to the inner tube.

By the time I got to the bottom of the flood plain I had been in the shade of the mountain for some time and for a short while there were even flurries. It was a little too cold for my liking, but I did remove a fair amount of trash. 

This was everything. The first river clean-up of the year went well and was the first of many to come in 2017!

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Owl Creek Reservoir (1-Jan-2017)

Years ago I started a tradition on the first day of the year. I was out on a hike with snow covering the ground and when I got to the base of a dam, I found that the stream was packed full of Red-Spotted Newts. Every year since then, on the first, I set out to see the first amphibian of the year. It is always a Red-Spotted Newt, but that is the only amphibian in PA that can be found year round if you know where to look. This year I tried my luck at Owl Creek Reservoir. Adult Red-Spotted Newts are aquatic, so I had to find a place where there wasn't ice. The reservoir above clearly wasn't the place to look.  

Between the top and bottom reservoir is a small man-made channel and much of it wasn't frozen over. I want first to a spot with a good flow to it where I was sure I would see these newts congregating. I had no luck so I started following the channel down. It didn't take long until I spotted one. So the above is my traditional first amphibian sighting of the year. After seeing it I did walk some of the trails around the reservoir and got to see about half a dozen more newts. 

The trails were partially covered in snow and I only found a few items of trash. On top of the balloon there is a lens cap that may be hard to see. Not much, but this was the start of another trash collecting year!

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New Posts Coming This Week!

I am about two months behind on posts here on blogger. You can check out my Facebook page for my most updated posts: Taking Out the Trash in Eastern PA. The clean-ups haven't stopped! If you have any areas you want to see cleaned up this spring and summer please let me know.