When I lived and worked in Pennsylvania, I would stop at Lost Creek Shoe
Shop as often as I could. The proprietor is a great birder and he is very
generous in the optics he makes available to test in his "back-deck" viewing
area. Plus, they get some interesting vagrants. Lost Creek is definitely
worth a trip if you are in Central PA.

Sharon Kanareff
Wenatchee

----- Original Message -----
From: "Kevin Purcell" <kevinpurcell at pobox.com>
To: "Tweeters" <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Cc: "Kevin Purcell" <kevinpurcell at pobox.com>
Sent: Friday, January 01, 2010 1:24 PM
Subject: Re: [Tweeters] Two Bird Stories


> Slightly off topic ...
>
> On Dec 31, 2009, at 7:12 PM, Lee Rentz wrote:
>
>> We got a Christmas card from an old friend in upstate New York, who
>> described going to photograph Snowy Owls during a great irruption
>> year in her area. The interesting thing is, she said that Amish
>> people would drive their buggies out in the country to see the owls,
>> and recalls one young bearded man who watched the owls with
>> binoculars, his bird book open on the buggy seat. I shouldn't
>> necessarily be surprised, but I love apparent contradictions like
>> this.
>
>
> An Amish love of nature doesn't surprise me (and you neither I
> expect). But neither should the use of binoculars. The Amish aren't
> luddites they just have an interesting relationship with technology
> governed by "The Ordnung". I can see birding with optics especially
> with others as having "Gelassenheit" just so long as you are not being
> vain picking your brand of binocular.
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amish#Modern_technology
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ordnung#Technology
>
> There is rather "well known" store in Amish country, the "Lost Creek
> Shoe Shop" that sells shoes, and bikes, and hunting equipment and ...
> top class binoculars. It doesn't have electric light though -- it's
> all natural light from skylights to light the interior. They do have a
> outside covered observation deck that looks out over fields, streams,
> hills and distant mountains that provide a good setting for evaluating
> optics.
>
> If you'd like to read more about this see this thread from
> birdforum.net with quite a few photos of the bins and the buildings.
>
> http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=99221
>
> And a PDF of their advert in the Lewistown Sentinel showing their bins:
>
> http://lewistownsentinel.com/page/content.detail/id/516701.html?nav=5230
>
> Directions for the curious: To get there from State College, PA (about
> an hour), take Route 322 about 12 miles beyond Lewistown and take the
> exit marked 35N and proceed northeast on Rte 35 for 4 miles toward
> Oakland Mills (If you reach McAlisterville, turn around and try
> again). As you enter Oakland Mills, watch carefully for a left turn
> and a sign for the shop which can be easy to miss . Turn left onto
> Oakland Rd (a large stone house is on the left at the turn), go .6
> miles, and the Shop is on the left at 643 Oakland Rd, Mifflintown, PA.
>
> I've never been but if I'm birding in Amish country (only an hour away
> from PSU) I'll stop by!
> --
> Kevin Purcell
> kevinpurcell at pobox.com
> twitter: at kevinpurcell
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Tweeters mailing list
> Tweeters at u.washington.edu
> http://mailman2.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/tweeters


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