For my last hike of the vacation at Allegany State Park, I picked an even, wide path – France Brook Road. There were still blockades across the road, so I parked where Limestone Run Road meets ASP 2 and walked out as far as the second bridge and back. Spring peepers and Wood Frogs were making a racket. I found evidence of some “gentlemen callers” in the puddles and ditches.
I only saw one egg mass:
There were several caterpillars on the railing of the bridge. (If you can figure out what kind they are, let me know!)
I got caught up in photographing the bark of a fallen Scot’s Pine:
Oh, and there was this leaf… in a puddle…
It was just a meandering kind of morning. Birds and frogs singing. The world alive. The only thing that dampened my spirits was knowing that this was the last of this vacation. I would have been happy to stay for another few weeks!
A Passion for Nature 
last year i did a 3 day camping trip by myself. hiking, kayaking, reading, sketching and photographing. it is one of the best vacations i have ever had.
I think we all could benefit from a solo vacation once in a while!
I like the pine bark!
that looks like a tent caterpillar,very destructive and makes an opaque nest approximately
8-10 inches across in cherry or apple tree limb crotches.i have never seen a nest in a maple,
but that seems to be their favorite leaf.they seem to be making a resurgence in recent years.
the worst ever was way back in 1955 when they literally stripped some trees in northern
pennsylvania bare.
I thought that at first, too. But when I really looked in the books, it wasn’t tent or gypsy. My colleague checked a caterpillar field guide we have in the office and came up with Haploa. Timing and habitat seem to be in favor of that ID. When I went backpacking through the park a couple of years ago, the tent caterpillars were so bad you couldn’t take a step without then having to brush the webs off your arms. This year, it seems to be the Gypsy moths – egg cases EVERYWHERE. Cycles…