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

What a great turnout for our Spring Bird Walk in Glen Providence Park this morning – we had 22 people, including 2 kids, and 2 members of the Penncrest High School Envirothon team! We were led by Tom Bush of the Birding Club of Delaware County, who took time to show us what birds to look for before we started, and gave us helpful tips during the walk. While the rain held out, we heard more birds than we saw, reminding us how helpful it is to learn bird songs!

We saw oodles of endearing Catbirds, a Red-eyed Vireo, Baltimore Orioles, and Yellow-rumped Warblers, and heard many birds including the ever-lovely Wood Thrush. Some of us lingered afterwards listening as activity increased – new for me was the buzzy call of the Green-throated Warbler, “trees, trees, murmuring trees.”

Thank you to Tom Bush for leading us, to naturalist Tom Reeves for joining us, and to the birders of all ages who came out early on a Saturday morning!

Spring Bird Walk eBird List

May 6, 2017
32 species

A Wood Thrush I saw hopping along the trail two days earlier. It is likely one of the ones we heard calling on our walk!

2 – Canada Goose
1 – Great Blue Heron
2 – Turkey Vulture
1 – Sharp-shinned Hawk
4 – Mourning Dove
4 – Red-bellied Woodpecker
2 – Downy Woodpecker
1 – Hairy Woodpecker
1 – Northern Flicker
1 – Eastern Phoebe
1 – Great Crested Flycatcher
4 – Red-eyed Vireo
6 – Blue Jay 
3 – American Crow
2 – Carolina Chickadee
5 – Tufted Titmouse
4 – House Wren
4 – Carolina Wren
2 – Veery
2 – Wood Thrush
7 – American Robin
16 – Gray Catbird
2 – Northern Parula
1 – Blackpoll Warbler
1 – Black-throated Blue Warbler
5 – Yellow-rumped Warbler
1 – Black-throated Green Warbler
5 – Song Sparrow
2 – Eastern Towhee
3 – Northern Cardinal
1 – Brown-headed Cowbird                
3 – Baltimore Oriole

2015 was the 80th Anniversary year for Glen Providence Park! In 1935, prominent Media Borough residents George and Eleanor Reed Butler donated the majority of land for Glen Providence, which would be the first park in the Delaware County system. The Butlers donated the park as a bird sanctuary and arboretum, and specified in the deed they signed on July 24, 1935 that the land be kept “in as natural a condition as possible.” Eleanor named Glen Providence “because of its glen-like formation and as it is located in the heart of the Providence townships.”

It was on Halloween 1935 when James Stokes, the first park guard, began work on the park under the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a depression-era jobs program. The WPA built all original park structures, including the entrances, the pavilion, several footbridges, and the concert stage.

The day after the park opened, an article in the Chester Times beckoned the public: “Come with your bird glasses, your flower guides, your tree books. Bring the school children and scout groups, and let Nature teach them her ancient lessons.” Glen Providence has hosted decades of events and activities including nature walks, birdwatching, scouting events, skating, sledding, fishing, fireworks, concerts, Haunted Woods, and the Great Media Easter Egg Hunt!

In 2015, we celebrated and honored the first 80 years of Delaware County’s first park. In addition to our regular monthly events:

• At our Earth Day Celebration, we planted trees by the historical stage with Delaware County officials and Media Providence Friends School students.

• On the anniversary weekend of the park deed being signed, we held an 80th Anniversary Celebration at our July concert – with the Butler grandchildren Eleanor Reed Lewis and Clifford Butler Lewis as guests of honor!

• At our Halloween 80th Birthday Celebration, Hedgerow Theatre performed Edgar Allen Poe’s The Raven, and enacted the park’s 1700’s Newlywed Ghost Story and 1800’s Witch Story! A costumed audience of almost 200 enjoyed the performance (and birthday cupcakes!) before heading off for trick-or-treating.

Read more about the founding of Glen Providence Park and its Halloween birthday, or explore its rich past on our History Timeline. More photos and details about our 80th anniversary events are in the green links above.

We wish you many more wonderful years, Glen Providence Park!

Photographs by George Tate:

It was a chilly but beautiful Saturday morning when we participated in our fifth Christmas Bird Count (CBC) in Glen Providence Park! Our most exciting sighting was a beautiful white Red-tailed Hawk soaring overhead – this was likely due to leucism, a partial loss of pigmentation in animals. The hawk was a beautiful sight against the blue sky, though our view was through tree branches. The most numerous species we saw was winter visitor Dark-eyed Junco, often accompanied by White-throated Sparrows. In this unusually warm December, the invasive periwinkle (vinca) was in bloom. It was a peaceful and refreshing way to spend a Saturday morning in the midst of the holidays!

It was the 116th year for the CBC – the world’s longest-running Citizen Science survey! Our final count totaled 151 birds of 23 species. Here is our official Christmas Bird Count list for Saturday, December 19, 2015:

Canada Goose – 13
Mallard – 17
Turkey Vulture – 4
Red-tailed Hawk (leucistic) – 1
Mourning Dove – 4
Red-bellied Woodpecker – 4
Downy Woodpecker – 1
Hairy Woodpecker – 1
Northern Flicker – 1
Blue Jay – 4
American Crow – 8
Carolina Chickadee – 3
Tufted Titmouse – 15
White-breasted Nuthatch – 4
Carolina Wren – 1
American Robin – 5
European Starling – 8
Dark-eyed Junco – 22
White-throated Sparrow – 13
Song Sparrow – 3
Northern Cardinal – 6
Common Grackle – 1
House Finch – 12

For our 5th National Public Lands Day on Saturday, September 26, we installed wildlife habitat plantings at the lovely Kirk Lane entrance to Glen Providence Park! On the day of Pope Francis’ visit to Philadelphia, 33 adults, teens, and children volunteered a combined 116 hours digging, planting, mulching, installing deer fencing, raking, and watering! It was a fun and fulfilling morning spent with wonderful people.

We planted 31 native trees and shrubs, and over 24 native perennials – the complete list is below. The plants benefit wildlife by providing seeds, nuts, fruits, and nectar for mammals, birds, butterflies, and other pollinators. We planted milkweed specifically to help the Monarch butterflies – milkweed is the larval host plant for their caterpillars. As the Delaware County Conservation District pointed out, the plantings should also help slow down and absorb surface storm water runoff that might be flowing off the Kirk Lane road surface into the park.

The Kirk Lane entrance felt like a fitting planting location in this 80th anniversary year for Glen Providence Park. The trees in the lawn area replace trees that had fallen, shrubs along the lawn edges extend wildlife habitat areas, and the planting beds in front of the entrance wall benefit pollinators and beautify the entrance. The Blueberry shrubs and Serviceberry and Pawpaw trees also produce fruit edible by humans! We left room in the right planting bed to install a replica of the original 1930’s “Glen Providence Bird Sanctuary and Arboretum” Kirk Lane entrance sign, which you can see in the gallery below.

We love the community spirit at these planting events, which extends past the planting day. Several local residents remarked how they would continue to enjoy the plantings, and thanked us for our project. The day after the planting, we discovered an Upper Providence resident who had asked permission to run a 150’ hose from a house neighboring the park, and he was watering the plantings! We greatly appreciate this generous and helpful act.

We have so many to thank for their help with this project… starting with all those volunteers!

Delaware County Parks & Recreation provided the funding for the plants and donated the deer fencing. Taylor Memorial Arboretum donated native trees, shrubs, and perennials again this year, and Delaware County Conservation District delivered their Conservation Planting Trailer full of all of the tools and supplies we could need! Garden Influence and Redbud Native Plant Nursery provided expertise, and Media Providence Friends School students are preparing plant labels. We are grateful to all of these people for making the plantings possible!

The next time you are at the Kirk Lane entrance, look for these native plants, and check out the fun in the photos below – just click on one to scroll through them. Thank you to George Tate and Marcia Tate for the wonderful photos of National Public Lands Day. 

Additional before and after photos by author.

At the wonderful concert with Jean Therapy on July 25, we celebrated the 80th anniversary of Glen Providence Park – with some very special guests! On July 24, 1935, George Thomas & Eleanor Reed Butler signed a deed donating the majority of land for Glen Providence Park to Delaware County. They donated the land as a bird sanctuary and arboretum, and specified that the land be kept in as natural a condition as possible.

We were honored to have as guests at our celebration the two grandchildren of George and Eleanor Butler: Clifford Butler Lewis and Eleanor Reed Lewis, or Cliff and EllieReed. Their grandparents’ gift was remarkably generous – it started the Delaware County park system, and generations have enjoyed nature walks, picnics, and community events in Glen Providence Park, including decades of Summer Concerts starting in June 1937!

The stage was built in 1937 by the Works Progress Administration, and is part of what makes Glen Providence Park eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. This summer, Delaware County Parks & Recreation resurfaced the stage for the park’s 80th anniversary, for which we are very grateful!

At our celebration, Media Borough Mayor Bob McMahon presented a proclamation to Cliff and EllieReed honoring the 80th anniversary of their grandparents’ gift – you can read the proclamation below. Cliff and EllieReed then spoke movingly about Glen Providence Park, including EllieReed’s gratitude that the park continues to be preserved in keeping with her grandmother’s intent, and Cliff’s childhood memories of running on the hill during summer concerts. It was touching to have Cliff and EllieReed there as we marked their grandparents’ enduring legacy.

We sang Happy Anniversary to Glen Providence Park, then shared delicious anniversary cake while enjoying a captivating afternoon concert with Jean Therapy!

Thank you to George Tate for the wonderful photos – click on any photo for a closer look!

Remarkably, the Butlers also brought golf to Delaware County in 1896, which you can read about here.

For the second of four concerts in our 2015 Summer Concert Series, Friends of Glen Providence Park is delighted to present Jean Therapy! A little bit retro, a little bit modern, Jean Therapy plays an eclectic fusion of Jazz-Rock, Latin, Blues, and Soul – with a strong female vocal, beautiful keys, and a really nice jazz guitar. 

Afternoon Concert & 80th Anniversary!

Saturday, July 25
4:30-6:00pm
Glen Providence Park stage, State Street, Media
Rain date: Sunday, July 26*

We will also celebrate the 80th anniversary of Glen Providence Park! On July 24, 1935, George and Eleanor Butler signed a deed donating the majority of the land to establish Delaware County’s first park as a bird sanctuary and arboretum. The Butlers’ grandchildren will join us as we celebrate the anniversary of this generous gift with a concert, and with anniversary cake!

Bring a blanket or chair, and relax on the lawn by the stage to enjoy a late afternoon concert! After the concert, head into Media for dinner and shopping, just 2 blocks away on State Street. As with all of our events, this concert is free and open to the public.

Thank you:

• Concert Sponsor Diego’s Cantina & Tequila Bar makes traditional peasant style food from the Puebla region of Mexico, on a wood burning grill. And it’s located just over 2 blocks from the entrance to the park!
• Concert Series Sponsor Media Recreation Board does so much for Media – including summer camp for kids, movies in Barrall Field, the Annual July 4th Celebration, and the Great Media Garage Sale Days.
• Concert Series Sponsor Media Rotary Foundation has been supporting the community by contributing to worthwhile organizations, groups, and projects since 1983.
• Delaware County Parks & Recreation has cared for Glen Providence Park since its creation in 1935, and their support makes these concerts possible. We are grateful that this summer, they resurfaced the historical concert stage for the park’s 80th anniversary!

*If the weather is questionable, we will post on Facebook and on our website by noon Saturday whether we will use our Sunday rain date.

For logistics, and for information on our upcoming August and September concerts, please see our 2015 Summer Concert Series announcement!

Since Glen Providence Park was established as a bird sanctuary and arboretum in 1935, Girl and Boy Scouts have been a part of its narrative! The day after work began on the park, a November 1, 1935 article in the Chester Times invited the reader to “Come with your bird glasses, your flower guides, your tree books. Bring the school children and scout groups, and let Nature teach them her ancient lessons.” The Scouts heeded that call, with accounts of Girl and Boy Scouts from across Delaware County visiting the park since the 1930’s.

Articles through the 1930’s, 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s recount how Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, Brownies, and Cub Scouts held picnics, cookouts, meetings, and ceremonies in the park, including new troop investitures and “a court of awards.” In September 1939, a Rutledge Cub pack had a meeting where “An interesting nature program was presented, which included a spirited contest on trees”(!). That October, a Lansdowne Girl Scout troop took a field trip to the “Bird Sanctuary.” 

Volunteerism

In addition to the many meetings and activities, the Scouts have a record of volunteerism in Glen Providence Park. In 1970, a dozen Upper Providence Boy Scouts conducted a major cleanup behind what was then Skelly contracting and Media Laundry, above the Mountain Laurel Trail – they “piled up enough trash for several truckloads in the park below the guardhouse.” In 1971, as part of a Boy Scout “Conservation Good Turn” program, Minquas District Boy Scouts cleaned up “creeks, streams, and roadways,” in parks including Glen Providence. “The Anti-Litter Day campaign” had the administrative support of the newly formed Chester-Ridley-Crum Watersheds Association. This was a predecessor of CRC’s Annual Streams Cleanup, which is in its 18th year, and still involves many Scouts troops!

In 2005, Kathryn Lenahan from Girl Scout Troop 907 took on an individual project that honored the intent of the park’s dedication as a bird sanctuary. A Penncrest High School graduating senior, she earned a Girl Scouts Gold Award for “designing and building a bird blind for people to enjoy birdlife.” Sadly the bird blind (a small shelter from which you can observe wildlife) near the Kirk Lane entrance was destroyed several years ago, possibly by a fallen limb. We marked its approximate location on our annotated trail map.

It is a possibility that in the 1930’s or 1940’s, the Scouts may have planted a number of trees in the park. We have not found confirmation of this, but we know that the Norway Spruce trees that cover much of the western hill were planted, seemingly since 1935, and that Boy Scouts had planted White Pines along nearby Ridley Creek Road around 1932. We would love to learn more about the Norway Spruce planting!

There is one Norway Spruce in the park that we know was planted by Cub Scouts. Sadly, the tree was planted in 1991 in memory of a Cub Scout from Pack 642.

Scouts today

The involvement of Scouts in the park continues. In 2012 and 2013, we attended a meeting in the park with 3rd grade Brownie Troop 5248 to talk about the Scouts’ history in the park, and the plants and wildlife – then they helped us with a park cleanup and with plantings around the stage! In 2014, the Minquas District Boy Scouts held a spring cleanup in the park with Media Rotary and Penncrest Interact. And just this month, we participated in a meeting in the park with 6th grade Girl Scout Troop 5037 to talk about the park and environmental stewardship, and about ideas for their Silver Award projects next year.

In honor of all that the Scouts have done in the park through the years, on our September 2011 annotated trail map, we nicknamed the park trail along Kirk Lane the Scouts Loop!

If anyone has more information about, or photos of, Scouts and their projects in the park, please contact us via email (using the Contact Us link) or by leaving a comment on this page.

Sources

Chester Times & Daily Times articles researched on the Newspaper Archives of Delaware County Library:

Chester Times:
Club Leaders See New County Park, November 1, 1935
Rutledge Cub Pack No. 7, September 27, 1939
October Days in Lansdowne, October 14, 1939
Rutledge, May 7, 1949
Eight Brownies Get Their ‘Wings’, June 10, 1950
18 Girl Scouts Attend Cookout, October 27, 1950
Media Girl Scouts, October 25, 1951
Ridley Park WSCS Plans Luncheon, June 6, 1955
Troop Enjoys Wiener Roast, October 31, 1957

Daily Times:
Girl Scouts Go Camping, April 16, 1960
Leaders of Patrols Selected, October 27, 1964
Boy Scouts help clean up Glen Providence Park area, December 1, 1970
Scouts to collect litter, June 4, 1971

And:

RTM Honors Girl Scout Gold Award Winner, County Press, May 31, 2005

What better way to honor and celebrate Earth Day and the 80th Anniversary year of Glen Providence Park than by planting trees? Yesterday we did just that with Delaware County Parks & Recreation, 2nd and 3rd grade students from Media-Providence Friends School (MPFS), and so many groups who help care for Glen Providence Park!

Long before the first Earth Day, in 1935 George and Eleanor Butler donated most of the land for Glen Providence Park to Delaware County as the county’s first park. The Butlers dedicated the park as a bird sanctuary and arboretum, and specified in the deed that the land be “kept in as natural a condition as possible.”

Yesterday’s Earth Day Celebration honored that spirit as we planted two native trees: a White Oak by the historical concert stage to replace the 110-year-old White Ash that fell in a storm last year, and a Pagoda Dogwood to add an understory tree. Michael Culp of Delaware County Council presented us with thoughtful a resolution honoring the 80th Anniversary of Glen Providence Park, which you can see in the photo gallery below.

A highlight of the celebration was the poetry read by the 2nd and 3rd grade science students of MPFS. Their poems written for Earth Day added meaning and inspiration to the event. You can read all of them in our link below – here are just two examples:

Trees   by MPFS 2nd grade student

The trees we plant thank us by giving oxygen and they also produce food like apples, oranges, tangerines and more!

My Evergreen Tree by MPFS 3rd grade student                        

Spiky as a porcupine and
Hard as a turtle shell
Green as a turtle
Brown as mud!

The MPFS students helped plant the two trees, and their water bucket brigade carried water uphill from Broomall’s Run to the stage to water them! After installing deer fencing to protect the trees, we ended it all with a pizza lunch in the picnic area by the stage.

Thank you to everyone who shared in the celebration, and all that they do to support Glen Providence and the other Delaware County Parks:

• Delaware County Parks & Recreation for providing the inspiration, native trees, supplies, digging(!), and pizza – and maintaining this lovely park for 80 years!
• Delaware County Park Board for all it does to support Delaware County Parks & Recreation.
• Delaware County Council for the resolution honoring the 80th Anniversary of Glen Providence Park, for making all of the County’s parks possible, and for approving the emergency streambank repairs last summer!
• Delaware County Planning for its thoughtful work on the Delaware County Open Space Plan, which was officially approved yesterday!
• Delaware County Conservation District for its guidance and Mini-Grants for two of our planting projects.
• Chester Ridley Crum Watersheds Association for its stewardship of all of our local creeks, and for donating deer fencing for the trees.
• Friends of Glen Providence Park volunteers for their ongoing work removing invasive plants and helping with 12 volunteer days since 2011 – this weekend’s cleanup will be our 13th!
• And a very warm thank you to the lovely students, parents, and teachers of Media Providence Friends School, led by science teacher Holly Hoffmann – your words were inspiring, and your enthusiasm contagious!

Photos & links:

Read all of the wonderful MPFS 2nd grade poems and 3rd grade poems! You can see more photographs on Delaware County Council’s Facebook page, watch a short news clip on CBS3 (which does not mention Glen Providence Park by name, but does include footage of the students!), and nice articles on the Delaware County website and in the Daily Times.

Thank you to George Tate for the fabulous photos – scroll through them all, or click on any for a closer look!

The Earth Day celebration was a collaborative effort between Delaware County Parks & Recreation, Friends of Glen Providence Park, and Media Providence Friends School.

We experienced several trail conditions at our Winter Bird Walk in Glen Providence Park on Sunday, from ice and snow to slush and mud! Despite the challenging trails and cold weather, the birds were active and cooperative. We spotted a nice array of species, including multiple kinds of woodpeckers, sparrows, hawks and crows. An ever-endearing Brown Creeper (in photo) seemed to follow us along the path, while a Winter Wren determinedly hid from us in some brush. Throughout the park, we encountered remarkably chatty and active Carolina Wrens. As we finished, we were treated to pairs of Hooded Mergansers and Black Ducks, then a flock of Snow Geese flew overhead!

It was an appropriate first event for the 80th Anniversary year of Glen Providence Park, which George and Eleanor Butler donated in 1935 as a Bird Sanctuary and Arboretum!

Thank you so much to the intrepid souls who attended, and to Al Guarente of the Birding Club of Delaware County for leading his 5th bird walk for us!

Winter Bird Walk eBird list:

January 25, 2015
27 species

200 – Snow Goose
100 – Canada Goose
2 – American Black Duck
25 – Mallard
3 – Hooded Merganser
1 – Turkey Vulture
1 – Red-shouldered Hawk
1 – Red-tailed Hawk
1 – Mourning Dove
3 – Red-bellied Woodpecker
5 – Downy Woodpecker
1 – Hairy Woodpecker
1 – Northern Flicker
3 – Blue Jay
2 – American Crow
1 – Fish Crow
15 – Carolina Chickadee
20 – Tufted Titmouse
3 – White-breasted Nuthatch
1 – Brown Creeper
1 – Winter Wren
10 – Carolina Wren
1 – Song Sparrow
10 – White-throated Sparrow
20 – Dark-eyed Junco
5 – Northern Cardinal
1 – American Goldfinch