Sunrise at the Jake (Jacobsburg State Park)

Those of you who have followed my blog for the past year or longer know that Barb and I will often head to Jacobsburg State Park (PA) since it is close (a 20 minute drive) and a great place for Barb to bird and me to photograph (particularly wildflowers this time of year).

This post is a testament to keeping your eyes and mind open and always looking for other opportunities along the way. And also a reminder to do your research whether you are going to be in your own backyard or a thousand miles away.

A couple of weeks back (on Father’s Day, if memory serves), Barb and I headed to Jacobsburg so she could look for the Yellow-breasted Chat and I could photograph some wildflowers. She came up empty but I did come away with several rather nice wildflower portraits that I really like. But as Barb looked and listened for the Chat, I started to do some nosing around an area of Jacobsburg that we don’t often to visit unless we are just hiking through. The more I looked, the more I liked what I was seeing – meadow up close, rolling hills, farmland, what passes for mountains in this area off on the horizon. It had the makings of a very nice bucolic landscape. What would really set it off though would be a sunrise or sunset.

A quick check of the map showed, much to my delight, that we were looking pretty much east. The sun should rise over the farmland.

So this past weekend we headed to Jacobsburg in search of a sunrise over the rolling hills and meadows. As we left the car at about 0440 you could see the beginnings of sunrise off to our left. As we walked straight into the meadow to the main trail, we turned… a sharp right. The sunrise was now at our back. As we twisted and turned through the meadow and woods, we eventually got turned around in the right direction and when we arrived at the spot we had scoped out before, the sunrise was beginning to unfold… right in front of us.

And a beautiful sunrise, it turned out to be!

5:17 am

5:21 am

5:23 am

5:40 am

Hope you enjoyed the sunrise!