I remember doing a column a few years ago on casual bird sightings in our area of Pennsylvania. I stated that one summer while hunting woodchucks, I observed an Orchard Oriole. A few resident birders corrected me and stated that this bird is more common than generally known. So, consider this my disclaimer to the most experts among us.
In the snowy and at the time, the most snowfall ever registered in our area during the winter of 1993-94, Linda Marie and I went on a hike along the old abandoned Penn Central Railroad grade which runs from Newberry Yard in Williamsport, to Southport, NY. I worked as a clerk on that railroad after the PA Railroad merged with the New York Central Railroad in 1968. The old Pennsylvania Railroad had a train, EC31 which was dispatched from Newberry Yard on Monday through Saturday at 6:00 a.m. daily.
We hiked from Alba north towards Colley, which is north. There was at least 24 inches of snow on the ground in mid February. The trail was nicely groomed by the various snowmobiles which used it. We noticed something quite interesting along the bank, just off the trail. It looked at first like a soft ice cream cone with a topping of chocolate on top. I decided to check it out. There were two such mounds. It turned out to be two woodchuck holes which had been dug out. The tracks indicated that a male woodchuck had visited the den of a female and was accepted. Woodchucks do awake from their winter slumber in February. Wish we had taken some pictures of those mounds. Do you know by what name that young woodchucks are called? The term is “chuckling.” I did not know that until I read a book on woodchucks. By the way, the record number of woodchuck holes for one den is 16. Heaviest woodchuck on record is 25 pounds.
. Jim Collins is an outdoor writer for this newspaper. To contact him, email jimcollinsinsurance@frontiernet.net; or write to him at Outdoors With Jim Collins, 87 Windfall Road, Alba, PA 16910.