Spring emerges in waves of blooms around Glen Providence Park – starting with lovely ephemerals Bloodroot and Trout Lily. Soon after, trees start blossoming around the pond, with elegant Serviceberry followed by Silverbell, Redbud, and Black Cherry. Some of the more whimsical flowers in the park are those of the Horsechestnut tree found on the sledding hill, and the Buttonbush that we planted near the pond. 2015 was the first year I can remember seeing Rhododendron and earlier-blooming Mountain Laurel flowering in the park on the same day, in early June.

At the pond, we saw our first Black Ducks, and for the second year in a row, Solitary Sandpipers! In the woods, Pileated Woodpeckers made their usual dramatic (and sometimes loud) appearances. We spotted a Great Crested Flycatcher and a Hermit Thrush, a sweet bird with a similar ethereal song to the Wood Thrush. It was exciting to watch a pair of Baltimore Orioles over several weeks as they built and tended a nest – but unfortunately we think a predator got to the eggs. The orioles spend most of their time high in the canopy – their nest was over 50 feet up in a tree!

For our fourth year, we tracked the timing of the emergence in the park of both ephemeral Bloodroot flowers and American Toads. Each year, the toads have emerged at the pond 5 to 8 days after the Bloodroot buds appeared on the western hill, despite a 3-week variation in the timing of the Bloodroot. After the long-lasting 2014-2015 winter, the Bloodroot buds appeared on April 6, and the comical toads (with their loud trilling!) 8 days later on April 14. We started tracking the timing of other plants in the glen – it will be interesting to see if any patterns emerge. For more on phenology, the study of timing in nature, see our Spring 2013 photojournal.

Summer brought peaceful mornings in the woods with the shade of all those trees providing respite from the heat. Hundreds enjoyed summer afternoons at our Summer Concert Series, including a special 80th anniversary celebration for Glen Providence. Throughout the spring and summer, we invited the community to deepen its appreciation of the glen with monthly events for kids and adults including two cleanups and herpetology, stream life, tree, and nature walks.

Click on any of the chronological photos below for a closer look, or scroll through them all. You can compare our 2015 spring and summer to other years in my photojournals, starting in August 2011. And many of these photos have detailed captions in our Facebook albums.

With one month left of winter, a look at last year’s long-lasting cold and snowy winter in Glen Providence Park! Snow started early with a dusting at Thanksgiving, and it snowed 5″ on March 20, the spring equinox! It had already snowed 10.5″ early in March, triple-snowdating our Early Spring Cleanup – there was still snow on the ground on March 22, so we removed invasive vines.

The glen is just magical with a coating of snow – and so peaceful on cold morning walks! It’s a quiet thrill to walk the trails in the snow with no footprints before you. Of course on school snow days the sledding hill is bustling, with activity mounting  through the afternoon! We don’t stop working in the winter – when the temperature rises above 35 degrees on Friday mornings, we work on removing invasive plants along the trails.

Despite the cold, there was no shortage of birds to observe – it is always amazing to see how wildlife endures the harsh temperatures. There were Mourning Doves bracing against a windchill of 9 degrees, and Red-tail and Cooper’s Hawks in the snow. A pair of endearing Eastern Bluebirds visited in February, a Brown Creeper made an appearance at our Bird Walk, and year-round park residents Red-bellied Woodpecker, Tufted Titmouse, and many others brightened the winter woods.

Undeterred by the snow and cold, our monthly events last winter were our 4th Christmas Bird Count in December, a Bird Walk in January, and an especially cold 80th Anniversary History & Nature Walk in February.

You can click on any photo below for a closer look, and there are more pictures in our facebook albums. You can compare our 2014-2015 winter to other years in my photojournals starting in 2011.

On this first day of fall, a look back to last year’s autumn beauty in Glen Providence Park! I spent some lovely and serene fall mornings along the trails and at the pond, encountering wildlife and interesting plants. Foliage seems to be starting slightly later each year – it had barely begun changing in early October, and did not peak until the end of the month. Early dustings of snow hinted at the upcoming snowy winter – on November 13, and again on Thanksgiving day!

Some wildlife encounters are more eventful than others… One early November hike took an exciting turn when we came across two White-tailed bucks scuffling over a doe! A few times it seemed they might charge at us. We were startled one morning during our weekly Invasives Removal to come face-to-face with an Eastern Garter Snake in a tree we were liberating from invasive vines. I saw my first Black Squirrel, which I had heard about living in Media, but had never seen. As a melanistic variety of the Eastern Gray Squirrel, individual Black Squirrels can exist wherever Gray Squirrels live.

I always watch for birds, which we continue to document on eBird for our Park Bird List. The park was frequented for a few weeks by a flock of up to 100 Common Grackles – they can be noisy, making odd sounds like rusty gates and like clucking – and they are entertaining to watch! Mallards returned to the pond with their occasional antics, with Winter Wren and Cooper’s Hawk being other birds I managed to photograph… you can view park sightings on eBird for the fall migration months of August through November to see what to expect in the fall!

With all the beautiful foliage, it can be hard to remember to look down, but don’t miss what is on the forest floor! In the past several years I have seen some amazingly varied fungi in the park – I would like to learn much more about them. Clubmosses, Lycopodiopsida, are primitive plants that reproduce through spores. According to wikipedia, the spores were used in Victorian theater to produce flame-effects(!), burning rapidly and brightly, with little heat.

Our monthly events last fall were our fun and rewarding annual planting day for National Public Lands Day in September, an engaging Scavenger Hunt for Kids in October, and a wonderful Geology Walk in November.

You can click on any photo below for a closer look, or scroll through them all! There are more pictures in our facebook albums. You can compare our 2014 autumn to other years in my photojournals for September, October and November 2011, and from Fall 2012 and Fall 2013.

Photos by author.

After a long, cold, snowy winter, 2014 brought a later spring than usual in Glen Providence Park – it snowed as late as St. Patrick’s Day. Early spring ephemeral flowers bloomed in the park about 4 days later than in 2013, which had been 17 days later than the very warm Spring of 2012!

Spring bird sightings brought our Park Bird List up to 112 species with additions including Wild Turkey(!), Worm-eating Warbler, Cooper’s and Broad-winged Hawks, and a Mother’s Day Yellow-throated Vireo! We observed a Pileated Woodpecker over several days as it bored a series of holes in a tree, and watched a pair of Tufted Titmouse take deliveries of moss to their nest. Exciting sightings at the pond were remarkably-patterned Wood Ducks, and Solitary Sandpipers!

For our third year, we tracked the timing of the emergence in the park of both emphemeral Bloodroot flowers and American Toads. Each year, the toads have emerged at the pond 5-6 days after the Bloodroot buds appeared on the western hill, or 4-5 days after the full Bloodroot flowers. In 2014, the Bloodroot buds appeared on April 7, and the toads 5 days later on April 12 – the same day as the 60th Anniversary Great Media Easter Egg Hunt! You can read a father’s charming account of taking his daughters to the Egg Hunt and to see the toads at the pond. For more on “phenology,” the study of timing in nature, see our Spring 2013 photojournal.

In Summer, Delaware County Parks & Recreation did substantial work in the park, with emergency streambank repairs by the pond, and repairs to the historical stage from a fallen 110-year-old White Ash. We watched fly fishing lessons at the pond by Delco Manning Trout Unlimited and Sporting Gentleman, enjoyed our third year of summer concerts in the park, and we celebrated our 3rd Anniversary!

Click on any photo below for a closer look, or scroll through them all. You can compare our 2014 spring and summer to other years in my photojournals, starting in August 2011. And many of these photos have more detailed captions in our Facebook albums. 

It was a winter wonderland in Glen Providence Park last year! Pennsylvania Woolly bear caterpillars had “predicted” last fall that the 2013-2014 winter would be cold and wet – oh, how right they were. Philadelphia had its third snowiest winter on record (since 1872), making for abundant sledding and magical scenery for winter walks. In February, we found a large valentine written in the snow on the frozen pond!

The temperature went as low as 4 degrees, but we observed birds foraging even on our coldest excursions in the park, leaving us to marvel at the resilience of these creatures. The sightings of Snow Geese and Ring-billed Gull brought our Park Bird List to 105 species. We captured our first photograph of a Bald Eagle in the park, being chased by American Crows! The intriguing Skunk Cabbage once again melted its way through the frozen ground, the first plant to flower each year – in winter.

You can click on any photo below for a closer look, and scroll through them all. You can compare our 2013-2014 winter to other years in my photojournals for December 2011, January and February 2012, and winter 2012-2013.  

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Fall is such a beautiful season in Glen Providence Park, and after record rainfall in summer 2013, last autumn was relatively free of extreme weather. I had less time than usual for photo walks in the park, ironically due to taking a 10-week Pennsylvania Master Naturalist course. But we continued to document the park’s plants and animals to create a record that we can refer back to for future comparison, and the walks I did take were usually rewarded with interesting sightings.

There were flurries of fall migration in late September and early October, including some additions to our Park Bird List – bringing us to 103 species by the end of November! Sightings included Magnolia Warbler, Philadelphia Vireo ( species #102), Northern Parula, and Chestnut-sided Warbler (#103!) – as always, thank you to Al Guarente of the Birding Club of Delaware County for confirming our new ID’s.

Some of the smallest discoveries are the most enchanting, including what we called a “star-bellied” fungi, an elegantly fuzzy caterpillar on a native blackberry leaf, and adorable baby Wood Frogs. These aptly named forest-dwelling frogs breed in vernal pools (ephemeral wetlands) – we saw several baby Wood Frogs last October.

That Pennsylvania Master Naturalist course helped me ID species in the park, such as the native and enigmatically-named Hog Peanut vine, Amphicarpaea bracteata. At one of the classes, Rose Tree Park Hawkwatch’s Holly Merker taught us that the Red-tailed Hawk’s “scream” is often used with video footage of Bald Eagles, because its scream is more intimidating than the eagle’s. You can frequently hear the Red-tailed Hawk in the park, as it is our most common hawk species!

Fall brings school classes that use Glen Providence Park as an outdoor classroom. In October, we encountered Penncrest High School 9th grade Environmental Science students conducting their annual pond studies in the park. In November, we helped Media Providence Friends School 5th graders install educational plant tags they had created for our National Public Lands Day plantings. The students were enthusiastic and had fun – what a wonderful service learning project!

In November we had a treat walking through the park with Clifford Butler Lewis, the grandson of park founders George and Eleanor Butler!  It was wonderful to hear his recollections from growing up here. We photographed Cliff by the (now dry) Eleanor Reed Butler waterfall, which was one of the park’s original structures, and was later renovated in 1949 in honor of Cliff’s grandmother. It was Eleanor Butler who specified that Glen Providence Park was to be preserved as a Bird Sanctuary and Arboretum!

You can click on any photo below for a closer look, and scroll through them all – and you can also view them on our flickr page! There are more pictures in our facebook albums, and in our Fall 1.1 Acre Project photos. You can compare our 2013 autumn to other years in my photojournals for September, October and November 2011, and from Fall 2012.

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Summer is fast approaching, it’s time to catch up with last summer’s photojournal of Glen Providence Park! It’s interesting to look back at what plants and wildlife are prevalent through the seasons and years. Here’s a sampling of what can be seen as the thermostat rises…

Last summer we had record rainfall, with the wettest July on record! It was second in total rainfall only to August 2011, which had brought us Hurricane Irene. Torrential rain in July both dislodged the pond intake, eliminating flow to the pond, and moved the boardwalk in the wetlands on the Shingle Mill Trail over several feet. We and County Parks were able to stabilize the pond intake (with repeated rock-moving!), but the boardwalk is still displaced.

All that rain had the plants growing fast – making the park especially lush, and keeping our Invasive Plant Removal crew busy! Blooms were a little late after a cool Spring – the Mountain Laurel along its eponymous trail was in bloom in the first week of June, while the native Rhododendron along the Ice House Trail bloomed later than usual, in the last week of June.

In summer, the pond is abuzz with life including damselflies, dragonflies, butterflies, and bees. Children (and adults!) love watching turtles and frogs at the pond, and fishing is a common activity. For those who look closely, there is much more to discover in the park – including fungi, which are amazingly varied and can be surprisingly elegant.

You can click on any photo below for a closer look, and scroll through them all – and you can also view them on our flickr page!  There are more pictures in our facebook albums, and in our Summer 1.1 Acre Project photos. You can compare our 2013 Summer to other years in my photojournals for June and July 2012, and my first photojournal from August 2011.  

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It was another beautiful Spring in Glen Providence Park, but much later than the unusually hot spring of 2012… plants emerged as long as 17 days later! With such a marked difference from the previous Spring, it was a great opportunity to observe phenology– the study of timing in nature.

The lovely ephemeral Bloodroot emerged on April 3 in the same location we had noticed it last year (in fuller bloom) during our Ephemerals Walk on St. Patrick’s Day. So we did a little phenology test- in 2012, American Toads had emerged in force at the pond about 4 days after the Bloodroot flowers.  We predicted similar timing this year… and what do you know, the toads’ loud trilling at the pond began 5 days after the Bloodroot buds!  It was again fun to watch the antics of the dozens (hundreds?) of comical toads at the pond!

As the Bloodroot started to recede for the year, the enchanting ephemeral Trout Lily began to bloom, about 3 days after the toads congregated- we will definitely monitor the timing again in 2014! And we will add other plants to our phenology observations- like when the fern fiddleheads emerge among the patches of Trout Lily. There is so much to observe during Spring’s progression of blooms, from delicate Redbud flowers to the spectacular and elegant Silverbell. It was particularly exciting to find a small patch of the uncommon native ephemeral Trillium!

While the plants and local wildlife seem to respond to temperature cues, migrating birds and butterflies follow signals to migrate in the places they are wintering. The Wood Thrush started singing on May 5, four days later than last year, and we first noticed the Gray Catbird five days later than last year.  So those birds were not as delayed as the 17 days for local plants- which means migrating species can arrive out of sync with when their local food sources emerge.

We are endlessly intrigued watching the wildlife in the park- we saw an Eastern Ribbon snake wrapped around a Common Garter Snake, which was busy trying (unsuccessfully) to swallow a toad. The lucky toad hopped away a few minutes later! We also watched an amazing display by four Common Flickers flying in and out of a tree, and they appeared to be courting- they would look at each other and sway their heads from side to side, fan their lovely yellow tails, and do other showy maneuvers. You can see them in our photos below!

In our 1.1 Acre Project, we continued to document plants, wildlife and features in the construction area for the 3rd Street Dam, including the historical springs.

Whether working on our Early Spring Cleanup in March, exploring the park on our 1941 Nature Guide & Spring Ephemerals Walk in April, or helping with the CRC Streams Cleanup in May, Spring is simply enchanting throughout Glen Providence Park!

You can click on any photo below for a closer look, and scroll through them all- and you can also view them on our flickr page!  There are more pictures in our facebook albums, and you can compare our 2013 Spring to last year in our photojournals for March, April and May of 2012.

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We didn’t get any substantial snowfall in Glen Providence Park this winter, but we did get several dustings and light coverings- enough for some friendly snowmen to emerge in the park, and for a few days of sledding!  And of course the woods look just magical with a coating of snow.  Add winter lighting and you have some beautiful hikes….

We headed out in the cold for our second year participating in the Christmas Bird Count in December, and our Winter Tree Identification in January.  We even ventured out in the rain for our Naturalist Walk & Talk in February, and the woods were lovely!  The intrepid Media Providence Friends School students continued to use the park as an outdoor classroom for science, service learning, and even for Mindfulness exercises!

The weather was erratic with January’s temperatures all over the map- ranging from a frigid 12 degrees to a balmy 68!  But with reptiles and amphibians in hibernation, there are birds and mammals to see.  One particularly fun bird to watch (if you can spot it despite its camouflage!) is the adorable Brown Creeper: it spirals its way up a tree eating bark insects, then virtually drops to the base of the tree to start up again.   To see what birds to expect in winter, see our winter bird sightings on eBird.

Valentine’s Day seemed like the tipping point for winter, with a beautiful coating of fresh snow rapidly melting- and we noticed buds on American Beech and Silver Maple.  After that, wildlife activity started picking up- with a number of birds singing in the park one late February morning, despite it being 26 degrees and breezy!   We saw an American Crow gathering twigs for a nest, and we had a report of a Muskrat swimming in the pond under the ice, the same week we were finding possible muskrat tracks along Broomall’s Run.

Winter is a great time to admire the structure of trees, and there are plants that are interesting year-round, like the Smooth Alder on the pond’s island with its catkins and cone-like fruit, elegant Mountain Laurel on the eastern hill, and mosses on the forest floor.  We started the 1.1 Acre Project to study and document the species in the construction area for the 3rd Street Dam- so that will be a parallel photojournal through the year!

You can scroll through our pictures below, and you can also view them with descriptions on our brand-new flickr page!  You can see more pictures in our facebook albums and in our photojournal.

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Every season is beautiful in Glen Providence Park– but Fall is just magical!  After our first year of monthly photojournals, we will continue with quarterly ones- following meteorological seasons, so our Fall photojournal is September through November.  We continue to work on identifying species of all kinds, with generous help from experts and from our knowledgeable facebook fans and nature walk guides!

At our August Nature Walk, Tom Reeves taught us about two intriguing species that are dependent on the American Beech (which is so abundant along the eastern hill), both of which we saw a lot of in the Fall!  The parasitic but harmless Beech-drop, Epifagus americana, grows in the roots of beeches and it blooms in the fall- and it is Tom’s favorite plant!  Beech blight aphids are fluffy little insects that remind us of Seuss’ truffula trees– they feed on the sap of the beech, and they are hysterical to watch.  There are even videos on YouTube– the Beech blight aphids look like they are dancing!   If you noticed gray spots on the ground that looked like ash, that is mold that grows under colonies of the aphids.

9/28 Sawfly larvae on River Birch

Amphibians and reptiles could still be found in October- we were excited to spot our first Wood Frog in the park!  It breeds in vernal pools- you can hear its call here.   Of course we frequently see the Common Garter Snake, but it was interesting to get a good look at how deeply their tongues were forked!  According to wikipedia, a forked tongue allows reptiles to sense the direction of a smell.

Insect indentifications included Sawfly larvae on one of the River Birches we planted- as identified by BAMONA, Butterflies and Moths of North America.  They looked like a buffet for birds!  Facebook fans identified a very fuzzy caterpillar we spotted by the pond as a Lined Ruby Tiger Moth, Phragmatobia lineata.

10/5 Ephemeral mushroom “flowers”

Another facebook fan identified both the black mushroom “Earth tongue”, and some delicate, ephemeral white mushrooms that look like flowers– likely a species of marasmius.

For several weeks you could find the fruit of the intriguing native Osage orange, Maclura pomifera, on the ground along the Sledding Hill- this odd-looking fruit measures about 5″ across, and can weigh over 1 pound! According to wikipedia, the fruit was once used to repel spiders by placing one under the bed, and one study found its extract elemol to be as effective a mosquito repellant as DEET!

10/25 White-tailed doe & fawn

Like last year, we began to see more White-tailed deer in the fall. I spotted this doe and fawn the day that several deer in the park were being oddly tame- I came across one napping on the Shingle Mill Trail, and after initially bounding off, each deer stood watching me from afar- and eventually they actually ignored me as I hiked around the park.

We were incredibly lucky that there was not more damage to Glen Providence Park from Hurricane Sandy just before Halloween- several trees fell and the pond level was very high, but the erosion and damage was nothing like that from Hurricane Irene in 2011.

As the leaves fell, the beauty of the park’s topography  was revealed.  Now it just needs a covering of snow….

Click on any photo for a closer look, and you can scroll through the photos for a virtual tour.   And remember we’re always adding  to the photo albums on facebook!