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Outdoors

Condors make surprise appearance

REDWOOD NATIONAL PARK, Calif. (AP) — The endangered California condor returned to soar the skies over the state’s far northern coast redwood forests this past week for the first time in more than a century. Two captive-bred birds were released from a pen in Redwood National Park, about an hour’s drive south of the Oregon border, under a project aimed at restoring the giant vultures to their historic habitat in the Pacific Northwest. The two male condors were moved into staging area at late morning and a remotely controlled gate was opened. After a few minutes of warily eyeing ...

Area teens capture youth bass state title

By John Hartsock jhartsock@altoonamirror.com A pair of 13-year-old Bedford County fishermen, Alex Fitzpatrick and Ander Cowan, recently won the Bass Nation Youth State Junior Championship and will represent the state of Pennsylvania in the national tournament this fall. Fitzpatrick, who is an eighth-grade student in the Chestnut Ridge School District, and Cowan, a seventh-grade student in the Everett Area School District, caught two largemouth bass weighing a total of 8.1 pounds to win the junior title on Sunday, April 3 on Pinchot Lake near Harrisburg. Fitzpatrick fooled a ...

CWD expands; bird flu breaks out in Pennsylvania

By Walt Young For the Mirror For almost a decade now, my least favorite topic to write about has been the outbreak of chronic wasting disease in Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, CWD has been an all too frequent and necessary subject for the past 10 years, and it appears this disease will continue to be a timely topic for the foreseeable future. I first began researching CWD more than 20 years ago when it was largely confined to the western states of Colorado and Wyoming but began moving toward the upper Midwest. Even then, I was doubtful I would see CWD spread east of the Mississippi ...

Going wild for trout fishing despite Mother Nature

By Walt Young For the Mirror Many anglers were delighted this year by the first day of trout season being moved to the first Saturday of April, a change that opened the season two weeks earlier than usual. Unfortunately, the weather so far this April has been anything but delightful. Several mornings were brutally cold with frozen fingers that struggled to tie knots, not to mention some snow on a few days along with rain and high water as well. Despite the decidedly unspringlike weather most of the time this month, the fishing has been good most days for those willing to brave the ...

Hearing important with gobblers

By Shirley Grenoble For the Mirror Spring gobbler hunters face two hunting scenarios: birds that hang out in farm fields or flocks that feed and breed mainly in forests, usually State Game Lands or State forest Land. How turkeys interact among themselves, and with hunters, is usually dictated by which of these two habitats they live and love in. The main difference between forest turkeys and field turkeys is that forest birds do a lot more talking among themselves than field turkeys. It’s a necessity. Since forest turkeys cannot keep track of one another by sight, they do it ...

Be aware of who’s awaken in the woods

Ah April! We all feel better when April arrives. So do wildlife, flowers and trees, and sports all seem to start in April. Especially, so do winter-stressed black bears. Small birds and animals that did not survive the winter are choice snacks to a bear. Garbage cans, dog food dishes sitting on the back porch, bird feeders are all desirable to bears, awakening from a long winter’s sleep and perhaps finding themselves with two to four cubs to now care for. When the bears emerge from the winter den they are hungry and begin at once to sniff out anything they can find to eat. As ...