Twelve attendees were treated to a private tour of the Preston Park  grounds by Buffalo Township Employee and volunteer docent, Marcie Love. She was in for a big surprise.  Never having hosted a nature group, she was unaware that we travel at “the speed of botany”. She gave us some excellent historic information, but we were always lagging behind looking at the plants.

The park hosts seven of the tallest trees in Pennsylvania, and they have been registered at www.pabigtrees.com.  These champions are marked with pink ribbons, but will eventually get permanent markers.  See the field notes for the trip here.

It started as a cool, sunny day in the mid-60’s, probably the first time we hiked the prairie and didn’t have to worry about sunstroke!  We found 73 species of wildflower species in bloom, and 19 species of butterflies.  Two new species for our master list were pinesap and featherfleece.  We found the Small Flowered Purple Fringed orchis, but in lesser numbers than the previous year. Click here for a list of our sightings.

Outing Report—October 6,2012
North Park Clean Up and Tree Planting at the Arboretum in Honor of Esther Allen

The day started out cold and damp but got warmer and sunnier as the morning progressed. Eighteen intrepid nature lovers , representing Wissahickon Nature Club, Botanical Society of W. PA, Boy Scout Troop 368, Friends of N. Park and Penn State Master Gardeners, worked to clear the area under the Katsura tree of invasive wild grape, multi-flora rose and buckthorn so that a bench could be erected and cemented into the ground in honor of Esther. We also planted a persimmon tree that was purchased by the Wissahickon Nature Club.

With the tree firmly planted, we headed to the Grant Grove to have hot apple cider, hot soup and cookies. After lunch, Dianne Machesney led a walking tour of the arboretum from 1:00 to 3:00 PM talking about some of the nicer specimens, including, Black Gun, Sweet Gum, Flowering Dogwood, Hackberry, Umbrella Magnolia, Cucumber Magnolia, Osage Orange, Lacebark Elm, Sugar Maple, Shagbark Hickory, Eastern Red Cedar, Black Ash and Cork Tree. We also studied a few shurbs with interesting fruit: Asiatic Sweetleaf, Linden Arrowwood and Winterberry. Many Closed Gentian were also still in bloom in the area that was cleared last year, proving that our hard work does make a difference.

Meg Scanlon, North Park naturalist, expressed her thanks to all.

Click here for a PDF showing photos of the day’s activities.

We started promptly at 9AM when the temp was about 75 degrees. There were patches of shade and a nice breeze until about 11:30 when the temperature started to soar into the 90’s.

We found 47 wildflower species in bloom and 32 butterfly species. Susan Butcher submitted our list to the July 4th Butterfly Count. We were happy to find several Baltimore Checkerspots.

The Canada Lilies were past bloom but there was a nice selection of other summer flowers.

Not shown in the photos, (click here for the photo PDF) were two Amish men and their three sons who were pretty darn good with the nets and saved us a lot of chasing in the heat.

We rewarded ourselves afterwards with a stop at Dairy Queen to eat sundaes and compare lists.

Click here for a list of butterfly species seen at Sandy Lake Gamelands, 2003 to 2012.

We 3 (Melissa, myself and my friend Linda), had a delightful walk today. We saw at least 20 different flowers from snow trillium to Large Flowered Trillium – blooming! We heard many birds (which Melissa identified), including a Louisiana Waterthrush and saw several others including 2 herons and their nests, many geese on their nests and a mallard on its next in a nesting box. The owner even put out a “Welcome Wissahickon” sign for us! Sorry more folks didn’t come.

Click here for a list of what we saw.

— Judy Stark

Here are some photos from the very rainy Nichol Road outing of August 15th. Very small turnout, just the folks you see in the photos (and photographer, of course!) Nice lunch though, sitting in the Stonehenge shelter listening to the rain.

Like Sesame Street, my word for the day was “petiole” and my plant for the day was “Rough-leaved Goldenrod”, which, as it turns out, I believe I have in my yard. I’m trying a new approach to the flood of information I get….

Monica

Jennings Prairie, July 2011. Remembering Esther Allen

The purple fringed orchis on the bridge was no where to be found but after lunch seven of us did the woods trail to see the cardinal flower and nearby , in among the skunk cabbage, we found about a dozen and what I am keying out to be “small flowered purple fringed orchis”. That made my day. We found helleborine that was past its prime and seedbox in bloom. There were also lots of butterflies today. Especially spicebush, doing their mating dance over the prairie. There were dozens and dozens of them, possibly 100. As you will see in the group photo, Dave, Jr. brought Esther and Dave’s ashes along with the sundial he will store them in at his house. So Esther was with us in body and in spirit! The fruit cluster, I am calling carrion flower. No one was sure. The mushrooms Judy and I are guessing are a Clitocybe of some sort. Maybe funnel cap. I didn’t get home until a little after 5PM and I bet Monica didn’t get home until after 6:00PM. A long but very enjoyable day. — Dianne