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Making time for the feeding of winter birds

Photography has long been one of my favorite hobbies and a perfect complement to all my other outdoor pursuits. Needless to say, I was delighted to count a new camera as a Christmas present this year. Okay, in full disclosure, it was really a gift to myself. I just couldn’t resist the holiday sale price offered for a model I had my eye on. A new camera is always a special treat, but winter isn’t always the most photo friendly in our part of the world. Sure, a blanket of fresh snow can turn the landscape into a winter wonderland with unlimited photo opportunities, but once deer ...

Tiny Bible school is fast becoming Washington Generals

ATLANTA — Carver College has become college basketball’s equivalent of the Washington Generals, barnstorming from city to city, playing games almost every night, enduring one enormous beating after another. Appalachian State 105, Carver 23. Wofford 111, Carver 37. Georgia Southern 92, Carver 27. Yet there’s one big difference between the Cougars and that hapless foil of the Harlem Globetrotters. Carver always takes the court expecting to win, even though there’s virtually no chance of that happening unless the other team fails to show up. “I don’t have that ...

Pitt basketball’s COVID-19 issue offers perspective

Prior to his team’s trip to play Miami in the Atlantic Coast Conference opener earlier this month, Pittsburgh men’s basketball coach Jeff Capel joked about traveling to a place with nicer weather but not being allowed to enjoy it due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Capel coached the Panthers ...

2020 perfect for socially distanced Newby Awards

In these scary times, it’s hard to pull off an awards show. Thankfully, the Newbys have always been a state of mind, so it shouldn’t be a problem to carry on safely in the midst of a pandemic. We never got around to ordering trophies, or reserving a space, or rolling out an actual red ...

Nature knows what to do in the woods

It is not just hunters who express concern for the state’s wildlife during a prolonged and wicked winter. We seem to be on the path to a tough winter this year. Many non-hunters also wonder how wildlife survives during rough winters. It is not easy to explain nor to contemplate. But wildlife copes differently than humans do with harsh conditions. Here is a quote from the vintage book “Rambling through Penn’s Woods,” a hard-to- find book these days since it was published in 1981. The book is a collection of articles once published in “The Pennsylvania Naturalist” ...

Reminiscing about muzzleloaders in the ’70s

As the late archery and flintlock deer seasons get underway this weekend, a contingent of intrepid hunters will venture forth with those special weapons for a final chance to put some venison in the freezer this winter. Both seasons run through Jan. 23. These late hunts present plenty of challenges, especially with some of the harsh weather that can happen in January. Bows and arrows were first legalized for deer hunting in Pennsylvania in 1929. The first archery season for deer in Pennsylvania occurred in the fall of 1951. The first winter archery season came in 1964 and was ...