March 2023

Photo by Maike Schulz Keith Nelson swallows a sword.

Next Wednesday, March 29 at 7 p.m., Mr. Pennygaff’s One Man Cirkus for children and adults will be on the Coolidge Theatre stage at the Deane Center for the Performing Arts at 104 Main Street in Wellsboro. UPMC is sponsoring this show.

Featured is Keith Nelson, a solo performer who has traveled the world, bringing a unique hybrid of vaudeville, circus and sideshow spectacle to audiences of all ages. Experience a vaudevillian plate-spinning act and mind bending juggling, sword swallowing, acrobatics, fire-eating, bottle and glass tricks and other feats set to live music to create an interactive evening of fun for the entire family. 

Tickets are $10 for adults and children ages three and up. Children, ages two and under, are admitted free. Come one, come all and get your tickets now for the Cirkus by calling the Deane Center at 570-724-6220 or visiting deanecenter.com.

At 7:30 p.m. next Friday, March 31, Terry Barber, an international countertenor, is presenting “A Tribute to the Best of Broadway” in the Coolidge Theatre at the Deane Center for the Performing Arts at 104 Main Street in Wellsboro.

Barber will sing hits from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s most beloved Broadway musicals, from Hamilton and Les Misérables and a special tribute to Freddie Mercury.

 Those who go on the first Saturday Morning Bird Walk on April 1 at Hills Creek State Park may see a ring-necked duck (shown).

Members of the Tiadaghton Audubon Society will lead the Saturday Morning Bird Walks at Hills Creek State Park located on Hills Creek Road in Charleston Township, about seven miles northeast of Wellsboro. The walks are free and open to the public.

All of the nine walks will begin promptly at 8 a.m. on Saturdays, April 1, 8, 15, 22 and 29 and May 6, 13, 20 and 27.

Registration is not required. Everyone is invited to participate, including both children and adults and birders of all levels, first timers to experienced.

BRADFORD, Pa. – The Friends of Hanley Library will sponsor a reading by Civil War scholar Dr. Christopher Mackowski at 7 p.m. March 29 in Harriett B. Wick Chapel at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford.

Mackowski, a 1991 graduate of Pitt-Bradford, will discuss his latest book, “Grant’s Last Battle,” and share excerpts and stories from the book, particularly about how the Union general and former president wrote his memoirs while dying of throat cancer.

Mackowski is a professor in the Jandoli School of Communication at St. Bonaventure University in Allegany, N.Y., where he serves as associate dean for undergraduate programs, and works with the National Park Service at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park, which includes the Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Wilderness and Spotsylvania battlefields. He is the historian-in-residence at Stevenson Ridge, a historic property on the Spotsylvania battlefield.

He is the editor-in-chief and co-founder of the Emerging Civil War blog and has authored or co-authored nearly two dozen books and edited a half-dozen essay collections on the Civil War. He is vice president and serves on the board of directors of the Central Virginia Battlefields Trust and serves on the advisory board of the Civil War Roundtable Congress.

Earlier this month, he was selected by the American Battlefield Trust as a recipient of its highly regarded Copie Hill Civil War Fellowship.

The Friends of Hanley Library is a non-profit group that supports education and literary programming for Pitt-Bradford and local communities.

 A reception and book signing will follow Mackowski’s presentation, which is free and open to the public.

Snowshoe Hare Fun Hunt Followed Breakfast.

Marienville, PA—Joe Ewing Reporting–The second annual Big Woods Hare Hunters of the Allegheny St. Patrick’s Day Breakfast was held in the Shamrock Room at the Kelly Hotel in historic downtown Marienville, PA. on March 18^th, 2023. Hare hunters from as far away as Tampa, FL, and Buffalo, NY, were in attendance. Fellowship and camaraderie over good food and good conversation were enjoyed by the 26 members attending. After breakfast, the group moved to a secret location on the Allegheny High Plateau known for harboring the elusive varying hare or snowshoe hare.

A long convoy of pickup trucks conveyed the hunters to hare habitat in the Allegheny National Forest. Before launching the pack of beagles, the hunters gathered to listen to two special guest speakers who spoke to the members about game lands and game animals.

Mr. Lane Potts, a wildlife health technician from the Wildlife Futures Program, spoke of the health of Pennsylvania’s game animals, including snowshoe hare, cottontail rabbits, Appalachian cottontails, and ruffed grouse. Lane, an honorary member, discussed Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease Virus 2 (RHDV2) and the proactive measures the PGC is taking to mitigate that threat. In September 2022, the Game Commission established Pennsylvania’s first RHD – Disease Management Area (DMA) that covers roughly a 5-mile radius around where RHD was detected in a domestic rabbit facility.

The Wildlife Futures Program, started in 2019, is a science-based wildlife health partnership between the Pennsylvania Game Commission and the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Veterinary Medicine, designed to strengthen the resilience of Pennsylvania’s 480 species of birds and mammals. 

Mr. Scott Wolbert, Northwest Regional Forester for the Pennsylvania Game Commission, spoke on the health of Pennsylvania’s forests and the programs the PGC is undertaking to keep our forests healthy. Managing Pennsylvania’s Game Land forests for the benefit of game animals, namely snowshoe hare, was discussed. The Big Woods Hare Hunters of the Allegheny understand that grouse and hare habitats go hand in hand. The Grouse Priority Area Siting Tool (G-PAST), which identifies locations where ruffed grouse can quickly take advantage of habitat creation based on landscape variables and nearby source populations, was discussed, and a question and answer period followed each presentation.

The Big Woods Hare Hunters of the Allegheny, headquartered in Lucinda, PA, is Pennsylvania’s premier snowshoe hare conservation organization. The members meet annually to advance their knowledge concerning snowshoe hare, rabbit habitat, and beagling by hearing from the experts. The members take the opportunity to renew friendships and promote fellowship. The Big Woods Hare Hunters of the Allegheny remain dedicated to preserving snowshoe hare and beagling on the Allegheny Plateau and throughout Pennsylvania.