June 11, 2016  Saturday   10:00 AM

Picnic at Mingo Creek State Park – Shelter 4  ( Near the Ebenezer Bridge)
Join us as we celebrate the Wissahickon Nature Club’s 75th Anniversary.
Wissahickon will provide kielbasa, hot dogs, charcoal, buns, paper plates and condiments.

Bring your own beverages.
Please bring a side dish to share. Shelter 4 is equipped with electricity, so crock-pots are welcome.
Bring field guides and binoculars.  Wear hiking shoes, a hat and sun block.
Everybody’s welcome -not just Wissahickon Nature Club members.

Directions:
>From Pittsburgh via I-79: Take I-79 South to Exit 43. Turn right and follow to stop sign. Turn right on Route 519 South and follow to Route 136 East. Follow signs for Mingo Creek Park (left turn into park) and the Park Office. Just past the Park Office (office on right), make a left to Shelter 4, through the Ebenezer Covered Bridge.
>From Pittsburgh via Route 51: Take Route 51 South to PA Toll Route 43 South. Pay $1 toll and take Exit 44. Turn right on Route 136 West. Follow signs for Mingo Creek Park (right turn into park) and the Park Office. Just past the Park Office (office on right), make a left to Shelter 4, through the Ebenezer Covered Bridge.
>From New Stanton: Take I-70 West to PA Toll Route 43 North (towards Pittsburgh). Take Exit 44 (toll 50
cents) and turn left on Route 136 West. Follow signs for Mingo Creek Park (right turn into park) and the Park Office. Just past the Park Office (office on right), make a left to Shelter 4, through the Ebenezer Covered Bridge.
>From South Hills via Route 88: Take Route 88 South until you’re approaching where a REALLY HIGH bridge (Route 43, Joe Montana Bridge) passes over it. Make a right onto Ginger Hill Road at a little sign on your right that says “Mingo Creek 2 miles”. Make the next immediate right onto Little Mingo Road. Follow this until you get to the park entrance on your left. Turn left into the park and take the main park road through, following the signs for the Park Office. The first bridge you will pass is the Henry Bridge — not Ebenezer; continue straight and do not go through it. Just past the Park Office (office on right), make a left to Shelter 4, through the Ebenezer Covered Bridge.
Or visit http://www.co.washington.pa.us/downloads/167.pdf

Our speaker, Donna Foyle, talked about her birding trip to St. Lawrence Island, Alaska.  She stayed four nights at the village of Gambell, which has no motorized vehicles except ATVs.  About 600 Yupik native Americans call Gambell home.   All supplies, food,  building materials,clothes, televisions, ATVs etc. must be flown in.

The second leg of the trip was in Nome, where they saw glaciers with blue ice, melting into the sea.

Donna purchased a hand carved ivory walrus tusk image of a whale as a souvenir. The residents depend on tourists to supplement their incomes.

The rocks were samples of the hard-to-walk  beach area.  This was the last meeting of the club year.   See you again on the trails and back at Fern Hollow Nature Center in September.

May 7, Saturday, 10:00 a.m. Raccoon Creek State Park Wildflower Reserve, by Dianne Machesney. Bring a picnic lunch.

June 3, Friday, 10:00 a.m. Buzzard Swamp, Marionville, by Bob Machesney. This will be for dragonflies and butterflies. Bring a net. Dress for ticks. 4 mile loop. Bathroom available in parking lot. No picnic tables.

June 11, Saturday, Wissahickon Annual Picnic, Mingo Creek State Park. Nature walks before and after lunch beginning at 10:00am. Click here for details.

June 24, Friday, 10:00 a.m. Whiskerville Gamelands by Bob Machesney. This will be for dragonflies and butterflies. Bring a net. Dress for ticks. 4 mile loop. No bathrooms. Rain date will be June 26. Directions From Pittsburgh: 79N to 422E to Rt 8 N. Go 1.2 miles to Rt 308N. Go 14.2 miles to Annandale (past Montour High School) turn right onto Branchton Rd. (SR 4010) Go 2.4 miles to Whiskerville. Turn left onto Kohlmeyer Rd. Go 2.2 miles, across SRCreek Bridge/RR grade. Turn right into parking lot.

August 6, Saturday, 10:00 a.m. Jennings Prairie by Dianne Machesney. Directions From Pittsburgh: 79N to 422E roughly 5.8 miles to 528N. Go 7 miles. Meet in the Jennings Prairie parking lot on the left (west) side of the road.

Our speaker, Norm Diebold and his wife, Linda gave us an  introduction to Bee Farming.  His hives reside at Fern Hollow Nature Center and are used for educational purposes.

We learned there are seven recognized species of honey bees and 20,000 other bee species.  They have been around for 30 million years.  A typical hive will have 20,000 to 30,000 bees.    Queens can live for 2-3 years.  All the workers are female and drones are male.  The worker bees can sting only once and it causes their death.  Queens and drones can sting multiple times.

Norm talked about the ways bees communicate with pheromones, how they gather nectar to make honey, store pollen and seal cracks in the hive with propolis.  Honey is antibacterial and never goes bad.

He went into a lot of detail about hive management and winter survival. The biggest problem is managing/preventing mite infestations.  There were many questions, and Norm patiently answered them all.

Our speaker, and club member,  Adam Haritan, presented Foraging For Wild Medicines.  After a lively introduction about the benefits of wild foods, Adam highlighted a few plants and mushrooms that appear in spring, including Hawthorne, Stinging Nettle, White Pine Pollen and Turkey Tail mushrooms.  He talked about the health value of each and  how to make teas, decoctions and tinctures, using his favorite ethanol product – 40% Organic Vodka.

Adam had an array of his tinctures for sale.  He uses his medicines as tonics, at low dosage levels and is not giving medical advice for particular ailments.  See your doctor for that!

Adam has posted an excerpt of this talk on his blog.  View it at:  http://learnyourland.com/foraging-for-wild-medicines-and-the-importance-of-a-medicinal-strategy/

Our guest speaker was Andrew Zadnik from the Western PA Conservancy’s Land Stewardship Program. He spoke of the different properties owned by the Conservancy and also of those 36,000 acres protected by conservation easements.

Special emphasis was given to Tom’s Run Property off of Route 65, since it is the closest to our meeting site at Fern Hollow Nature Center.

Members noted the death of E-2, the male peregrine from the Cathedral of Learning.  His mate, Hope, had laid two eggs and probably will not incubate them now. There is still time for her to find a new mate this season.

Thanks to Judy Stark for making our favors this year!