Well, at least we had a little taste of winter in Glen Providence Park!   Just a few days before Valentine’s Day, we had this romantic snow… but it didn’t last long, and overall it continued to be an unseasonably warm winter.

There were increasing splashes of color with buds on some trees, and early plants such as the intriguing Skunk Cabbage starting to bloom.  By the third week in February, wildlife started emerging from hibernation, with a Groundhog and turtles spotted in the park.

Of course you can find birds in the park year-round, and we had 22 people admiring them on our fun Winter Bird Walk!  February sightings included this pair of Pileated Woodpeckers, magically accompanied by a brief snow flurry.  The Northern Flicker (in the gallery below) has lovely markings, and a distinctive loud wik-wik-wik call.    Learning bird calls definitely helps to identify birds, as they can be mighty evasive!

Pair of Pileated Woodpeckers

Not all park activity is easily photographed… February was a busy month for planning for the park’s future.  There was enthusiasm for preserving Glen Providence Park at the Delaware County Open Space Plan meeting.  Media Borough’s Citizens Advisory Committee held weekly meetings to examine possibilities for the 3rd Street Project.  We started work on two projects with Delaware County: we are investigating attaining the National Historic Register status that the park was determined eligible for in 2002, and we are planning  streamside plantings near the pond to control erosion, beautify the park, and feed wildlife.

In further citizen science efforts, we finished tree mapping the 1.1 acre construction area for the proposed 3rd Street Bridge/Dam, and we published our Park Tree List.

We ended the month with a rainy Leap Day trip to the park with an intrepid Media Providence Friends School science class… it was a bit too cold and wet to take photos!

Click on any photo below for a closer look.  You can view more photos in our Facebook Albums: including Wildlife, Scenery, and History.

What a fun and informative hike this was! It was well worth braving the bitter cold to take a walk through Glen Providence Park on Sunday with Academy of Natural Sciences Research Associate and University of Pennsylvania lecturer Dr. David Hewitt, along with three of his botanist friends from Philadelphia! This enthusiastic, energetic and incredibly knowledgeable group was a delight to host.

We also had a great group of local people, including Academy of Natural Sciences Research Associate, Walt Cressler, and Friends of Glen Providence Park’s native plant specialist, Marcia Tate! We started with an overview of the park’s tree history, including comparing 1939 and 1950 photographs of the park’s trees with today’s view. Then we toured the trails… did I mention it was cold?

Adding to the magic, a Great Blue Heron made a dramatic entrance flying over the pond, and then it perched on a high branch for several minutes before circling the pond again. And the frozen pond was speckled with white– it looked like snowflakes had been frozen in the ice!

Some Glen Providence Park trees we discussed:

Look at how large the sledding hill's White Oak already was in 1950! Posted with permission of the Media Historic Archives

– The large White Oak on the sledding hill was already sizable in 1950. David pointed out that the base of the tree is buttressed on all sides, indicating that it has been exposed to the wind on all sides as it grew- so the sledding hill was already a meadow long before the park was established. We would love to determine the age of that oak!

– We mused about why American Beech is so predominant on the Mountain Laurel Trail– oak trees may have been cleared for lumber at some point. Of course we admired the lovely Mountain Laurel grove and the view!

– How do you tell the difference between a Black Cherry and Black Birch in winter? By tasting the twigs, of course! The cherry tastes bitter, and the birch tastes like wintergreen (it was once used in making birch beer soda- yum!). Alas ours was bitter, so it was a Black Cherry.

– We speculated about when the Norway Spruces were planted on the western hill, which we know from T. Chalkley Palmer was “nearly devoid of trees” in 1889, and photos show the western hill was still mostly clear in 1939 and 1950. We know the White Pines along nearby Ridley Creek Road were planted around 1932 by Boy Scouts- could Boy Scouts have planted the Norway Spruces?

And then there was the “after-party”: we went to Seven Stones Cafe to warm up and continue the conversation, before returning our new city friends to the train! Needless to say they loved the cafe, and were interested to hear about Media’s impressive array of events including 2nd Saturdays, music festivals, and of course Dining Under the Stars! See, you really can take a restorative hike and then hop into town for coffee and entertainment!

This friendly city invasion brought to mind the newspaper articles from the park’s early days about Penn professors, families, naturalists from Germantown, even Penn fraternities taking the train and trolley to visit Glen Providence Park. It’s also fun to think of the Academy of Natural Sciences connection- former Academy president T. Chalkley Palmer grew up exploring the land, then called Scroggie Valley, and wrote extensively about it in 1889… “As for the valley and its hills as they now are, I have known all their nooks since the beauty, the quietness, and the nameless charm of Scroggie drew my steps through the opening, and by degrees toward the far, blue, woody ending thereof more than twenty years ago.” He wrote a few pages specifically about the lovely Mountain Laurel grove.

And looking to the future, David Hewitt plans to return to Glen Providence Park to further study its trees. We look forward to it!

A big thank you to David Hewitt, and everyone who attended our winter tree walk on such a cold day!

Event photos by George Tate.

Love trees?  We sure do… which is why we are excited to welcome Dr. David Hewitt to explore the trees in Glen Providence Park!

Winter Tree Walk in Glen Providence Park

Sunday, January 15
1:00-3:00 pm
Main park entrance on State Street

David Hewitt regularly leads tree walks in Philadelphia.  He is a lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania, a research associate at the Academy of Natural Sciences,  and does a fair bit of work developing education and outreach programs on agriculture and the environment, “and other sciencey things”.  He also does some work as a microbial geneticist and a consultant on sustainable development.

We think it is natural he would like to check out Glen Providence Park, which was dedicated as an arboretum in 1935, and was appreciated by naturalists long before that!  This will be David’s first visit to the park, so we will start with a 5 minute intro to the park, including some historical photos of its trees.  Then we will explore the park’s trees along some of the trails.

The park has a historical connection with the Academy of Natural Sciences– T. Chalkley Palmer grew up exploring the land, then called Scroggie Valley, and wrote extensively about it in 1889. T.C. Palmer went on to become the president both of the Delaware County Institute of Science 1894-1934, and of the Academy of Natural Sciences 1926-1928!

We are looking forward to this winter tree walk- you are welcome to join us!

Logistics:
Approximate distance: 1.5 miles
Approximate time: 2 hours

Be prepared for steep hills, and uneven (possibly wet) terrain: wear your hiking shoes, and bring a hiking pole if you use one! And binoculars are always a good idea- it is also a bird sanctuary, after all!

From late fall foliage to a rare pre-Halloween snow, it was an odd month! At least we had some days of gorgeous weather after months of record rain, and we were still able to see some reptiles, which will soon go into hibernation until March or April. These two Red-eared Sliders swam across the pond and out of sight with that large caught fish! The region’s most common striped snake, this Common Garter Snake was still out at the end of October.

Red-eared Sliders with fish

We spotted some White-tailed Deer… did you know they were hunted to extinction in Delaware County by 1862, then reintroduced from Michigan in 1906 for hunters? (see endnote) You would if you heard our park natural history presentation to the Media Providence Friends Middle School science class!

This striking red dragonfly may be a Meadowhawk

We are enchanted by the (slowly-changing!) foliage. We especially love the Sassafras tree, in part because of its three different leaf shapes- including mittens & ghosts!

Sassafrass leaves!

The beautiful American Beech tree is plentiful in the park- you can identify this large tree by its smooth gray bark. This beech was hosting a Tufted Titmouse…

Tufted Titmouse in American Beech

Which brings us to the birds! We are beginning to really appreciate why this park was dedicated as a Bird Sanctuary, and why early newspaper articles raved about the birds to be found. We’ve entered our own sightings and historical data on eBird.org, creating the Glen Providence Park Bird List: a database of birds sighted in the park covering over 100 years!

Mourning Dove

As birds are often heard and not seen, we recognized the need to learn bird calls (try eNature.com). Two easier ones to start with: the Mourning Dove’s doleful “… cooo, coo, coo,” and the Carolina Wren’s three-syllable chant that sounds like “tea-kettle, tea-kettle, tea-kettle, tea.”

Carolina Wren

Red-bellied Woodpecker, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, White-breasted Nuthatch, Black-throated Green Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warblers… so many have hyphenated names! You can find the park’s complete list for the month on eBird, or scroll through our photos on facebook.

We saw many hikers, dog walkers, and a family having their portrait done. Among the school classes visiting the park, Penncrest High School science students spent three days conducting water studies.

Blue Jay

In the midst of it all, we took part in early planning to figure out how to make the pond healthy and sustainable. Read Upcoming Changes: Pond & Wetlands for a summary.  And we enjoyed a beautiful morning installing a stepping stone stream crossing and discovering the source of two natural springs at our second Park Clean-Up & History Reclamation! We also saw that part of the Shingle Mill Trail is flooding due to a large fallen tree in Broomall’s Run… and it does not look like that tree will be easy to remove. Wear your boots!

As for the snow on October 29… how did we not get a picture of that?!

Entrance to "Shingle Mill Trail"

End Note: According to  George Smith’s 1862 “History of Delaware County,” the county’s White-tailed Deer had been hunted to extinction, along with elk, wolves and bear.  According to the 1999 “A Land of Providence and its People”, White-tailed Deer were transported into this area from Michigan in 1906, “to answer the desire of hunters and others.”

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

White-breasted Nuthatch

Our 2nd month documenting park wildlife and happenings…  In the first few days, we noticed that the Cicadas had ended their “singing” for the Summer, and we saw our first Fall foliage- it was beginning to feel like Fall!  Then rain, heat and humidity took over for what seemed like the whole month.  And that following August, which was Philadelphia’s all-time rainiest month on record!

Delaware County Parks promptly removed the 94-year-old downed oak tree from the pond, causing the Red-eared Sliders to return to their previous basking places… including eachother’s backs!

Common Muskrat

We were able to catch a photo of one of the (at least) two Common Muskrats living at the pond.  A long-time resident told us that Muskrat sightings used to be common in the pond and in Broomall’s Lake.

The Ruby-throated Hummingbirds we saw on several visits were just too fast, however. Not surprisingly, their wing speed is dozens of beats per second!

We saw a Groundhog (also known as Woodchuck) by the pond, and the usual Eastern Chipmunks.  And American Toads could be spotted hopping through the woods along the trails!

Coral fungus: Purple Fairy Club?

We introduced a Fungi album on facebook.  These are not part of the plant kingdom, as they do not carry out photosynthesis.    It is amazing how many different kinds you notice, when you start to look!

Great Blue Heron

The magnificent Great Blue Heron can stand 4 feet tall! It is also vocal, calling frequently in flight- we watched and listened as two flew over the pond! This appears to be a juvenile (1st year)- perhaps from the nest said to be at Broomall’s Lake?

Wood Thrush

We were delighted to see the lovely Wood Thrush.  Its flute-like song has been enchanting visitors to this valley since at least the 1800’s, when the land was called Scroggie Valley!  You can listen to its song here.

Excavator

Not your everyday park scenery… the erosion at the bottom of the sledding hill and along the stream is challenging to manage. We appreciate the work the County is doing!  And we are meeting with them to see how we can help.

We are not the only ones tracking changes in the park: a Media Providence Friends School science class visited the park and took water samples for testing, and they plan to help us document the park’s plants and wildlife!

Since the park’s beginning, school classes have visited the park to study its plants and wildlife.

That tradition continues today- Media Providence Friends School already held a science class in the park this year!  They wrote an article about how their Elementary and Middle School students visit the park throughout the year to learn about science, art, environmental studies, and even Spanish! 

Media Elementary School studies in the park have included conducting a food web analysis of a pond ecosystem.

We even met a college student majoring in Environmental Studies who spent this summer studying the ecology of the park!

10/6/2011 update:

We learned that Penncrest High School conducts ongoing ecology studies at the park.  As we learn of more schools, we will list them here.  If you know of other schools involved with the park that are not yet listed, please let us know!