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It was an all day outing on a perfect spring day in Central Upstate New York. Al Tahan and I visited a small private quarry where the Middle Devonian Oatkacreek Formation Mottville Member, part of the Marcellus Shale and the lower Hamilton Group is exposed. It's been about a year since I visited the site which I've been coming to for the past five years and it was Al's first visit. Erosion had broken down almost all of the pieces of shale which covered much of the site on previous visits. However a lot of fossils here, preserved in calcite are weathered free from the matrix and surface collecting can be very productive. This is by far the best site I've been to for the gastropod, Bembexia sulcomarginata. There were dozens strewn about the site. I couldn't resist picking up a few adding to my already extensive Bembexia collection. Brachiopods were also plentiful, especially the large spiriferid, Spinocyrtia granulosa (upper right). I couldn't help adding this inflated example to my large collection. Upper left is Mucrospirifer murcronatus, certainly one of the most abundant and distinctive Middle Devonian brachiopods in New York. Lower left is Protoleptostrophia perplana, a Strophomenid.