The Saturday before Christmas, nine of us ambled in Glen Providence Park on a beautiful, cold, sunny morning for the Christmas Bird Count. It has become a fond holiday tradition (and reunion!), with most of our group having participated in multiple Bird Counts. Thank you to everyone who volunteered their eyes and ears that morning!

We documented 306 birds of 25 species – with the quantity due to eight flocks of Canada Geese flying overhead. Some of our most exciting sightings were a Brown Creeper, Winter Wren, and several woodpeckers and vultures. Once again this year, the Great Horned Owl that has been calling many nights around the park did not make an appearance that day, but we heard it just the night before.

It was the 123rd year for the CBC – the world’s longest-running Citizen Science survey! Here is our official Christmas Bird Count list of 25 species for Saturday, December 17, 2022:

Canada Goose – 171
Mourning Dove – 17
Black Vulture – 1
Turkey Vulture – 6
Red-tailed Hawk – 2
Red-bellied Woodpecker – 3
Downy Woodpecker – 2
Hairy Woodpecker – 3
Pileated Woodpecker – 1
Blue Jay – 3
American Crow – 3
Fish Crow – 9
Carolina Chickadee – 5
Tufted Titmouse – 7
White-breasted Nuthatch – 6
Brown Creeper – 1
Winter Wren – 1
Carolina Wren – 7
American Robin – 22
House Finch – 7
American Goldfinch – 4
Dark-eyed Junco – 8
White-throated Sparrow – 7
Song Sparrow – 3
Northern Cardinal – 6

A few photos from that morning are below, and a video by Carol Carmon…

The Saturday before Christmas, eight of us headed out on a very overcast morning in Glen Providence Park for the Christmas Bird Count. The air was damp, making it feel colder than the thermometer’s 40 degrees! But the Bird Count never fails to be a literal and figurative breath of fresh air in the midst of the holiday bustle, and we were accompanied by wonderful people. We documented 140 birds of 28 species – second only to last year’s wintry count, when we documented 29 species!

Some of our most exciting sightings were a Brown Creeper, Hermit Thrush, Winter Wren, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, and Sharp-shinned, Cooper’s, and Red-shouldered Hawks! Alas, the Great Horned Owl that has been calling many nights around the park did not make an appearance that day, but having heard it just the night before, we were able to include it in our count for the week.

It was the 122nd year for the CBC – the world’s longest-running Citizen Science survey! Here is our official Christmas Bird Count list of 28 species for Saturday, December 18, 2021:

Mallard – 10
Mourning Dove – 18
Turkey Vulture – 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk – 1
Cooper’s Hawk – 1
Red-shouldered Hawk – 1
Belted Kingfisher – 1
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker – 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker – 5
Downy Woodpecker – 1
Hairy Woodpecker – 1
Northern Flicker – 1
Blue Jay – 5
American Crow – 6
Fish Crow – 5
Carolina Chickadee – 2
Tufted Titmouse – 5
White-breasted Nuthatch – 3
Brown Creeper – 1
Winter Wren – 1
Carolina Wren – 2
Hermit Thrush – 1
American Robin – 46
House Finch – 3
Dark-eyed Junco – 6
White-throated Sparrow – 9
Song Sparrow – 1
Northern Cardinal – 2

It was overcast enough that it was hard to see the birds with binoculars, much less capture their picture, but here are a few photos from the Bird Count and Christmas Bird Count Week…

Carol Carmon’s video on YouTube (below) captures the morning beautifully!

You have likely noticed the seemingly whimsical stacks of rocks along the stream in Glen Providence Park. People have also been moving rocks in the stream to dam and redirect sections, and presumably to make it easier to cross on foot. We believe these activities are well-intentioned, but moving rocks in and around the stream has unintended negative consequences. 

First, it is harmful to wildlife

To quote Ben Lorson, of the PA Fish and Boat Commission’s Habitat Division, “A stream’s bottom — the substrate — has its own micro-habitats. The substrate provides the base of the aquatic food chain — from algae to macro-invertebrates all the way up to game fish. The surfaces of the rocks and the cracks and crevices between them are very important as habitat…”  

And from ausableriver.org: “Salamanders and crayfish also make their homes under rocks, and rock moving can destroy their homes, and even lead to direct mortality of these creatures. Every single rock is potentially a home to the larval stages of aquatic insects, including dragonflies, damselflies, mayflies, stoneflies, and caddisflies, and many others. They cling to rocks and capture drifting food particles. By moving and stacking rocks, the insects that are attached to or living on the rocks can be desiccated and burned by the sun.”

It is also causing erosion

Much of the rock-moving that has occurred has directed water outwards towards the streambanks, where it is worsening the already severe erosion. Large trees have been undercut by the stream and fallen. Over the years, our Friday morning Conservation Crew has worked to remove log jams in the stream — this is important to direct water away from the streambanks. Constructing dams, redirections, and crossings in the stream has the opposite, negative effect — it directs water to the sides, towards the already-severely-eroded streambanks. 

The County is looking at long-term solutions for the pond and stream to address the ongoing erosion and other issues, but it will take several years before large-scale solutions can be implemented. Until then, it is especially important that the water flow towards the center of the stream and away from the streambanks to minimize the already severe erosion.

We discourage any moving of rocks in or around the stream, without first consulting with Delaware County Parks & Recreation and/or the Delaware County Conservation District. 

It was a beautiful spring morning on Saturday for our 9th Spring Bird Walk in Glen Providence Park! Alas, we had canceled last year’s due to Covid, so we were especially excited to hold the walk again this year. It was the 4th bird walk that Dave Eberly has led for us. Predictably we heard more birds than we saw, but we identified seven warbler species, Baltimore Orioles, a Cooper’s Hawk, and we even managed to document a new species for our Park Bird List, the Gray-cheeked Thrush! That brings the number of species documented in Glen Providence Park to 129.

Thank you very much to Dave Eberly for leading yet another bird walk for us, to the wonderful group who attended, and to Carol Carmon for videoing. Watch the video on YouTube for an explanation of bird behavior during migration, what eBird is used for, and a glimpse of some of the birds seen on our walk.

Here is our complete checklist of 37 species for Saturday, May 15, 2021, as entered on eBird:

Mourning Dove – 1
Common Loon – 1
Turkey Vulture – 3
Cooper’s Hawk – 1
Red-tailed Hawk – 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker – 4
Downy Woodpecker – 1
Pileated Woodpecker – 1
Northern Flicker – 2
Red-eyed Vireo – 4
Blue Jay – 4
American Crow – 2
Carolina Chickadee – 2
Tufted Titmouse – 4
White-breasted Nuthatch – 1
House Wren – 3
Carolina Wren – 2
Gray Catbird – 15
Gray-cheeked Thrush – 1 – A new species for our Park Bird List!
Wood Thrush – 5
American Robin – 10
American Goldfinch – 4
White-throated Sparrow – 1
Song Sparrow – 3
Baltimore Oriole – 2
Red-winged Blackbird – 2
Brown-headed Cowbird – 1
Common Yellowthroat – 2
American Redstart – 1
Northern Parula – 1
Chestnut-sided Warbler – 1
Black-throated Blue Warbler – 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler – 1
Canada Warbler – 1
Scarlet Tanager – 1
Northern Cardinal – 2
Rose-breasted Grosbeak – 1

5/27: Edited to add YouTube link

Chris’ “10 Things” to do with kids in the park, and links, in no particular order:

1. Hiking
2. Leaf packs: https://leafpacknetwork.org/ (& check out the video of Chris explaining this in the snowy stream!)
3. Birding: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/
4. Tracking, casting animal tracks: instructables.com/How-to-make-a-plaster-cast-of-an-animal-track/
5. Pressing leaves
6. Bark rubbing: kaplanco.com/ii/tree-rubbings
7. Phenology: https://www.usanpn.org/about/why-phenology
8. Geology, collect rocks
9. Brush your teeth with Spicebush: https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=libe3
10. Make pine needle tea: https://www.wildedible.com/pine-needle-tea-natural-vitamin-c

Nature Scavenger Hunt!

Look for or collect:

• a wild edible
• evidence of the presence of animals
• something that is the same color as your shoes
• 3 different types of seeds—1 that is dispersed by the wind
• a wild bird feather
• something smooth
• a twig shaped like the letter Y
• find and identify a tree that still has its leaves
• something surprising or unexpected
• exactly 10 of something
• something that starts with the first letter of your name
• something fuzzy
• one camouflaged animal or insect
• something with a pleasant scent
• 5 pieces of man-made litter
• something that reminds you of yourself
• something that makes a noise
• something for every color of the rainbow
• evidence of the presence of people
• 4 leaves of different shapes
• a spider web
• something that is squishy
• an unusual shape
• something with a hole in it
• a mushroom or fungus

Have fun in the park!

Thank you very much to Chris McNichol for leading the walk, to Chris Dietrich for filming the leaf pack explanation, and to all who attended on a cold winter morning! More photos of the walk are on Facebook…

This morning we headed out in wintry Glen Providence Park for the Christmas Bird Count, our first monthly event since Covid-19. We limited attendance to eight masked and distanced people, each of whom has joined us on past bird counts. Starting out when it was 19 degrees(!), it was our coldest CBC yet. The birds were undaunted – we counted 29 species, the most of any since we started in 2011!

Some of our most exciting sightings were a pair of Red-tailed Hawks, a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Pine Siskins, Winter Wren, Brown Creeper, and Snow Geese flying overhead. And there were crows harassing an unseen bird on the western hill, likely the Great Horned Owl we have been hearing! It was exhilarating to be out in the cold, in the beautiful snowy woods, with wonderful company.

Both at the beginning and end of the morning, we saw a gorgeous Red Fox in the wetlands at Broomall’s Lake Country Club.

It was the 121st year for the CBC – the world’s longest-running Citizen Science survey! Here is our official Christmas Bird Count list of 29 species for Saturday, December 19, 2020:

Snow Goose – 3
Canada Goose -79
Mourning Dove – 8
Turkey Vulture – 2
Cooper’s Hawk – 1
Red-tailed Hawk – 2
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker – 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker – 2
Downy Woodpecker – 3
Hairy Woodpecker – 2
Blue Jay – 2
American Crow – 5
Fish Crow – 1
Carolina Chickadee – 6
Tufted Titmouse – 7
Red-breasted Nuthatch – 1
White-breasted Nuthatch – 4
Brown Creeper – 1
Winter Wren – 1
Carolina Wren – 3
European Starling – 10
American Robin – 7
Pine Siskin – 9
American Goldfinch – 9
Dark-eyed Junco – 7
White-throated Sparrow – 17
Song Sparrow – 8
Red-winged Blackbird – 3
Northern Cardinal – 8

And to include those birds who weren’t cooperative enough to appear on the big day, here are the additional species we saw or heard in the glen during Christmas Bird Count Week (from the Wednesday before to the Tuesday after the Christmas Bird Count):

Mallard
Great Blue Heron
Great Horned Owl

Photos from this morning and Christmas Bird Count Week below…

We were saddened to cancel our annual native tree planting for National Public Lands Day this fall due to COVID-19, as it is one of our favorite events! However, in 2019 and 2020, volunteers have planted 32 native trees and shrubs – and dozens of woodland plants – by the Kirk Lane entrance to Glen Providence Park.

In October 2019, we completed Phase Three of our Wildlife Habitat Plantings at the entrance and along the Scouts Loop trail. In both April 2019 and November 2020, our PA State Representative Chris Quinn planted a tree for Arbor Day. And in July 2020, volunteers planted three hybrid American Chestnut trees. All of these native plantings will benefit future generations of humans and wildlife!

National Public Lands Day
Saturday, October 5, 2019

Last Fall, 40 lovely adults, teens, and kids volunteered a combined 107 hours digging, planting, mulching, installing deer fencing, raking, and watering, all to improve wildlife habitat in Glen Providence!

This was Phase Three of our Kirk Lane project, which we started on National Public Lands Days in 2015 and 2016. We expanded on previous plantings with an additional 27 native trees and shrubs, and 50 native woodland plants – the complete list is below. The plants benefit wildlife by providing seeds, nuts, fruits, and nectar for mammals, birds, butterflies, and other pollinators, in addition to helping to slow down and absorb surface storm water runoff.

This project demonstrated the wonderful range of community groups and volunteers who come together to help in Glen Providence Park:

Delaware County Parks & Recreation provided the funding for the plants and delivered the mulch. Delaware County Conservation District delivered their Conservation Planting Trailer full of all of the tools we could need! Garden Influence and Redbud Native Plant Nursery provided invaluable expertise, Taylor Memorial Arboretum and Garden Influence donated additional woodland plants, and Friends of Glen Providence Park donors funded the deer fencing, posts, and other supplies for this project.

Additional groups of volunteers from Media Rotary and Springton Lake Middle School provided invaluable manpower, and neighbors of the park allowed us to run a hose from their house to water the plantings. Cafe Isla donated coffee to fuel our volunteers, and our PA State Rep. Chris Quinn both helped with the planting, and paid for and picked up pizza for lunch. We are grateful to all of these people for making the plantings possible!

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Plantings by PA State Representative Chris Quinn
Arbor Day 2019 & November 2020

Chris Quinn has planted two other native trees in the park by Kirk Lane – a Willow Oak for Arbor Day in 2019, and a magnificent “Green Gable” Black Tupelo today! He purchased both trees and planted them with us. We are grateful for his generosity, and that he chose Glen Providence Park for Arbor Day plantings!

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Trees from the American Chestnut Foundation
July 2020

Ron Brzowski and Pat Burke planted three hybrid American Chestnut saplings near two hybrids we planted with Ron in 2016. We were able to re-use deer fencing from some of our previous plantings. The trees were donated by Tyler Arboretum’s American Chestnut Nursery via The American Chestnut Foundation, and they were grown at the Mt. Cuba Center in Hockessin, Delaware. It’s all part of a decades-long effort to restore the majestic American Chestnuts that once dominated our eastern woods, but were decimated by a blight in the early 1900’s.

To learn more, visit the American Chestnut Foundation website or read about the chestnut’s local history and the two surviving pure American Chestnuts we found in Glen Providence. Thank you to Ron and Pat for planting and tending to the Chestnut trees in Glen Providence!

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Here’s our native plant list from National Public Lands Day in October 2019. And check out our photos from our planting days!

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See the individual events in our Calendar for more information and logistics. All events are free, family-friendly, and open to the public – we hope to see you in the park!

Friends of Glen Providence Park
2020 Schedule of Events

Schedule subject to change – please check back to confirm times, details, and meeting locations.

UPDATE: Covid-19 cancelations and postponements are noted below.

Winter Discovery Walk with Mike Rolli
Sunday, January 26, 1:00-3:00pm
Meet at State Street entrance
Rain, snow, or shine

Love Your Park Walk with Chris McNichol
Saturday, February 15, 10:00am-12:00pm
Meet at 3rd & West Street entrance
Rain, snow, or shine

Geology Walk with Charles Randall
Saturday, March 7, 2:00-4:00pm
Meet at 3rd & West Street entrance
Rain, snow, or shine

CRC Streams Clean-up – POSTPONED
Saturday, April 4, 9:00-10:30am
Meet at State Street entrance
Rain or shine

Spring Bird Walk with Dave Eberly – CANCELED
Saturday, May 9, 8:00-10:00am
Meet at 3rd & Kirk Lane entrance
Rain or shine

Arts in the Park: Kossler Duo – POSTPONED TO JUNE 2021
Saturday, June 27, 5:00-6:30pm
Main entrance
Rain date Sunday, June 28

Arts in the Park: Paul Downie & Friends – POSTPONED TO 2021
Saturday, July 11, 5:00-6:30pm
Main entrance
Rain date Sunday, July 12

Arts in the Park: Danie Ocean – POSTPONED TO 2021
Saturday, August 22, 5:00-6:30pm
Main entrance
Rain date Sunday, August 23

Arts in the Park: Malidelphia – POSTPONED TO 2021
Saturday, September 12, 5:00-6:30pm
Main entrance
Rain date Sunday, September 13

National Public Lands Day – POSTPONED
Saturday, October 3, 9:00–12:00 noon
Location TBD
Rain date Sunday, October 4

Wicked Plants & Ghost Walk with Marcia Tate & Stephanie Gaboriault – POSTPONED TO 2021
Saturday, October 31, time tba — Glen Providence’s 85th Anniversary!
Location tba
Drizzle, snow, or shine

Green Friday Walk with Holly Hoffmann & Aura Lester
Friday, November 27, time tba
Meet at State Street entrance
Drizzle, snow, or shine

Christmas Bird Count
Saturday, December 19, 8:00-10:00am
Meet at 3rd & West Street entrance
Rain, snow, or shine

And don’t forget the Great Media Easter Egg Hunt held by Media Lions & McCarrin Chiropractic – it’s the park’s longest-running event, held annually since 1954! This year’s date is Saturday, April 4 at 11:00am (sharp!), State Street entrance. – CANCELED

Join Friends of Glen Providence Park in our 8th year participating in the Christmas Bird Count, the world’s longest-running Citizen Science survey!  In this early-winter bird census, thousands of volunteers across the US, Canada, and many countries go out over a 24-hour period to count birds. Researchers and conservation biologists use the data to study the long-term health and status of bird populations.

119th Annual Christmas Bird Count

Saturday, December 15
8:00-10:00am
Rain, snow, or shine!* 
Park entrance at 3rd & West Streets

Slow down for a morning and take a break from the holiday rush!

Logistics

• Please note the location– we will meet at the 3rd & West Street park entrance
• *Rain, snow, or shine – but in the event of high winds, we will post on Facebook and our website that morning whether we will meet. 
• Be prepared for steep hills and rugged, possibly muddy and/or icy terrain
• Experienced and novice birdwatchers welcome!
• Of course, bring your binoculars and bird guides!

Friends of Glen Providence Park will submit our results to the CBC Compiler for Delaware County. We will also post the results on our website!

Join us for a late fall history and nature walk in Glen Providence Park! We’ll follow part of the self-guided route from the 1941 Nature Guide as we share historical photos, maps, stories, and descriptions of the glen. Learn about the park’s native shrubs and plants, as we look for wildlife and take in the last of the fall foliage! 

History & Nature Walk

Saturday, November 10*
2:00-4:00pm
Rain date Sunday, November 11
Main entrance, 550 W. State Street, Media

The walk will be led by me (the park history buff) and our native plant expert Marcia Tate.

Logistics:

• Estimated distance: 1-1.5 miles
• Estimated time: 2 hours
• Free!
• Be prepared for stream crossings, steep hills, and uneven (possibly icy or muddy) terrain: wear sturdy walking shoes, bring a hiking pole if you use one, and you never know when you’ll want binoculars!
• If the weather is iffy, we’ll post on our website and facebook by 12:00 noon on Saturday whether we will use the Sunday rain date.

 
* This is a new date. The walk was originally scheduled for Saturday, November 3.