PENNSYLVANIA ELK FIELD

     Every year, September is the time of the elk rut in the wooded hills and cultivated fields of northcentral Pennsylvania.  The loud, raucous squealing of stately bull elks echoes through the hills each late afternoon into the night, which is exciting to hear.

     I am thrilled to see and hear those majestic bulls through a live camera, mounted by the Pennsylvania Game Commission in a state game lands field, and our computer screen.  And I am happy to experience other kinds of mammals, and a variety of birds, by the same camera.  This field reflects some of the wildlife living in northcentral Pennsylvania, and following are some of the interesting wildlife highlights.

     Both genders and all ages of elk mingle in that field during the elk breeding season.  Up to 18 elk, including two or three large bulls with magnificent antlers, cows, and calves of the year, might be in that field at once from dusk into the night.  They all nibble grass and other plants, and the big bulls sniff for cows ready to mate.  But being constantly alert and restless, all elk may quickly exit that field at any time.

     While waiting for, and watching, elk in that field surrounded by woods in northcentral Pennsylvania, I see and/or hear other kinds of mammals and birds.  Late in the afternoon, or around dusk each September day, for instance, several beautiful, graceful white-tailed deer slip quietly into the field to graze on green vegetation.  White-tails are much smaller then their horse-sized cousins- the elk, but I think the deer are more attractive in body form.  

     Handsome buck deer with stately antlers and elegant does with their one or two fawns of the year move slowly across the field as they graze.  And like their relatives, the deer often stop feeding to look and listen for potential danger. 

     Sometimes, during the day, I see, and hear, small, family flocks of majestic wild turkeys stalking slowly across the field while catching and eating grasshoppers and other invertebrates, and feeding on seeds, green vegetation and other edibles.  At dusk, wild turkeys fly up into the trees to spend each night in relative safety.

     Over the years I have been watching for wildlife in that field through a live camera and our computer screen, I've seen a few kinds of predatory mammals, including a few coyotes, a family of  black bears and a bobcat, in that field.  These mammals, like the elk, deer and turkeys, represent species of wildlife inhabiting the wooded hills and cultivated fields of northcentral Pennsylvania.  

     The coyotes, one at a time, were snooping and sniffing about for field mice, cottontail rabbits and wood chucks that also live around that field.  It appeared that one coyote was eating apples under an apple tree.  Once a mother black bear led her three or four young across the field, no doubt to sources of food she knew about.  And the bobcat just happened to be in that field when the camera scanned it.

     Over the years, via the live camera, I was thrilled to hear woodland birds calling from the woods around the elk field.  A couple of times during the day I heard the wild cry of a pileated woodpecker.  At least once, I heard the hoarse croaking of a raven or two in the woods.  One late afternoon, I heard a whip-poor-will chanting its name from the woods.  And once at dusk I was treated to the eight-hooting of a barred owl in the woods and the scraping "toot, toot, toot" of a saw-whet owl.  

     That live camera in a field surrounded by woods in northcentral Pennsylvania allowed us to view and hear some of the exciting wildlife that inhabits that area.  We see the creatures peacefully going about their daily business without them knowing they are being watched.  We better appreciate wildlife and they are not alarmed by humans.