Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - 31

base of this long ledge is a level bench, about as wide as a church aisle, laced with wild grape, greenbriar and mountain laurel tangles. Threading along this bench I once flushed a dozen ruffed grouse in the course of a few seconds. One of those grouse I killed and it fluttered for a long moment right at the brink. Had it tipped over I would have faced a long hard climb down and back to continue the hunt. Sometimes, visits to the ledges are graced by ravens, perched, perhaps, stately and smug atop a snag, croaking out an occasional note. Other times I’ve seen them rapt in aerial jousting, pairs of them wrestling, it seemed, in midair, then plummeting and tumbling toward earth. In summer, pods of stern vultures hold out their pinions to the sun in early morning, then soar and tilt as the rays striking the ledges lift the air beneath their wings. Movement, song and grace in the air are in balance here with stillness, stealth and silence among the rocks themselves. Timber rattlesnakes, yellow and blackbanded coils of keel-scaled muscle, lie in the morning sun against rocks where they can retreat to blueberry shade in the heat of the day. Your eye can learn to see them after a few encounters. In my adolescence, friends and I climbed here looking for rattlers in what we perceived as adventure. To our credit we didn’t harm them even then, not to our knowing, but we did keep them captive long enough to impress those with a different impression of venomous reptiles, then released them on the rocks. More scientifically motivated searchers have since learned that catch-and-release can be a death sentence for rattlesnakes, which can become disoriented and fail to find the FEBRUARY 2010 winter den, or fail to ingest enough nutrition as autumn approaches. Tragically, the ones you see, sunning on open ledges, are the older gravid females, carrying the future within them. They need eight summers to mature, mate and give live birth. The sunning time is critical. It supports the demanding metabolism to gestate and deliver a litter. But the sun of early summer is seasonal and fleeting. The rattlers need it when they can get it, and they don’t need the interference of adventurers. I don’t bother them anymore. A salamander is said to live here in these ledges, too; the only known outpost for its kind in the state. I have never seen one, but that only adds to the lure of coming here. Green salamanders, according to herpetologists, make their central stronghold farther south, in the high misty mountains of east Tennessee and the west Carolinas. I feel a gratitude to those who have searched hard enough to know

Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010

Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010
Life & Times of the Whitetail Biologist
Contents
A Master with a Gun and a Pen
Tundra Swans
In the Shadow of a Sycamore
Puzzle Solved
A Pennsylvania Story
In Honor of the American Chestnut
The Warren County Warden
The Ledges
Halcyon Days for Southeast Goose Hunters
Field Notes
Conservation News
Off the Wire
Another View
The Naturalist’s Eye
Straight from the Bowstring
Fun Game
Lock, Stock & Barrel
Crossings
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - Cover2
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - Life & Times of the Whitetail Biologist
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - Contents
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - A Master with a Gun and a Pen
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - 4
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - 5
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - 6
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - 7
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - Tundra Swans
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - 9
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - 10
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - 11
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - 12
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - 13
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - In the Shadow of a Sycamore
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - 15
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - Puzzle Solved
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - 17
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - 18
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - A Pennsylvania Story
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - 20
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - 21
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - 22
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - 23
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - In Honor of the American Chestnut
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - 25
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - The Warren County Warden
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - 27
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - 28
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - The Ledges
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - 30
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - 31
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - 32
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - Halcyon Days for Southeast Goose Hunters
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - 34
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - 35
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - 36
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - 37
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - Field Notes
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - 39
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - 40
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - 41
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - 42
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - Conservation News
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - 44
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - 45
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - 46
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - 47
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - Off the Wire
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - Another View
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - 50
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - 51
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - The Naturalist’s Eye
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - 53
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - 54
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - 55
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - Straight from the Bowstring
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - 57
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - 58
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - 59
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - Fun Game
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - Lock, Stock & Barrel
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - 62
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - 63
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - Crossings
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - I1
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - I2
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - Cover3
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - Cover4
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