Natural Lands Trust Preserve Blog

Mariton - Unexpected Sightings

Recently, I greeted some people that came to walk the trails and take photos of animals.  It was the middle of a warm afternoon, when wildlife activity is usually low.  The people were also limited on time.  I wasn't too optimistic, but suggested a couple routes for them to try that day, and some more routes for a visit when they had more time.  They decided they really didn't have time to spare and left. 

Shortly afterward, I checked the trails.  It was a beautiful day, but I didn't expect to see any wildlife.  Was I surprised when I came across these deer standing just off the trail.  They watched cautiously as I snapped photos nonchalantly, while walking along the trail. Farther along, a Great-horned Owl glided across the hill side at eye level.  I would not have assumed to see deer while walking in the dry leaves, but a mid-afternoon owl was totally unexpected.

Another surprise happened recently when a flock of turkeys looked in my office window.  The office is built into the hillside, so while the window is at ground level on the outside, it is about two feet above my desk.  I literally have to stand up to see out the window.  So, when I caught movement out of the corner of my eye while typing, I thought it was a leaf blowing by.  When the movement continued, I stopped and looked up to see a turkey looking back at me.  Because of the angle, the turkeys had to be right beside the building for me to see them.  I grabbed the camera when they weren't looking, stood up, and took this photo before the exited from view.  There were a dozen birds in the flock.  Two different flocks have been hanging around the yard, but I never expected to see them looking in my window.

Crow's Nest: Fall beauty

I love the fall color of the oak-leaf hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia). With its exfoliating bark in winter and summer's flowers it looks beautiful all the time.

We will be treated to months of fall and winter beauty from the native warm-season grasses in our meadows. Little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium) looks great in fall and winter, especially when backlit by the low sun.

And here are the seed pods of a plant we saw in flower a few months ago: ground-cherry (Physalis subglabrata) which you can see in the meadow around the parking area.

Crow's Nest: Harmonyville Road bridge update

Work is progressing on the replacement of the state highway bridge near the middle of Crow's Nest Preserve. The second bridge abutment is much larger than the far side and required a big hole.

Those are our kitchen windows in the background of this photo. The contractor has been very conscientious and accommodating but this is as close to a project this size as I'll ever want to live. By the way, this bridge replacement has nothing to do with the preserve or Natural Lands Trust—it's simply a highway bridge that PennDOT has long planned to replace due to its deteriorating condition.

Crow's Nest: What are those orange flags for?

If you start down the Creek Trail from the parking lot these days you'll see a bunch of orange survey flags in and alongside the trail. Each one represents a spot where we found dog poop that hadn't been picked up, starting on October 23.

Crow's Nest is home to scores of wild plants and animals and is a source of peace and beauty to all who visit. We hold kids' programs and walks for families and are open to the public every day.

Unleased dogs can disturb wildlife and other preserve visitors. Not only does dog waste smell and look unsightly, it is a health hazard and impacts the water quality of the adjacent French Creek.

Please leash your dog and always clean up your dog's poop.

Here's a picture of our puppy, Tillie, smartly leashed on a trail hike.

Safety Training

We attended safety training yesterday at our ChesLen Preserve. Since we share equipment among preserves one of the topics was a review of how to transport equipment safely.

Here Roger Nichols demonstrates chaining a tractor on a trailer. He and David Casteneda, the managers at ChesLen, hold commercial drivers' licenses and have more experience trailering big equipment than the rest of us do.

As a preserve manager at primarily one location I benefit from the different knowledge and experience of colleagues at other Natural Lands Trust preserves.

Crow's Nest: Invasives Presentation at the Montgomery School

On November 14 I will be participating in a Stewardship Workshop on Invasive Plants at the Montgomery School in Chester Springs. This is part of the school's Program for Environmental Awareness and Sustainability and is being held in partnership with Natural Lands Trust's Center for Conservation Landowners and Yellow Springs Farm & Native Plant Nursery.

The workshop is recommended for landowners, teachers, and others interested in what they can do locally for the environment. It runs 1 pm to 4 pm and will have a hands-on field component—so dress for the weather. The program is free but pre-registration is required; click on the Stewardship Workshop link above for more information or to register.

Crow's Nest: the second part of fall

What a difference a week makes! We still haven't had a hard frost and our annual flowers are still blooming, but now it looks like November—which it is—and not October. A majority of the leaves have dropped and the dominant colors in the woods are shades of brown. There is still a lot of beauty out there, but it is of a different kind than the peak fall color.

Crow's Nest: Observing Fruit

It is easy to overlook fruit over flowers on many plants so it is worth taking time in the fall and winter to observe them. This species might be an exception, where the seed-enclosing fruit are arguably more attractive than the flowers. These are pokeweed (Phytolacca americana) berries, poisonous to people but not to the birds that eat them.

We often see Indian pipe (Monotropa uniflora) in flower, and we see the black, dried stalks of it in winter, but I have never taken the time to notice it in full fruit like this. (Neither have many others I guess, since photos of it in this stage are not easily found.)

The bent-over flowers straighten up as they mature and change from their ghostly white to pink and then to this red.

Mariton - Sassafras

Here are more of Carole Mebus' photographic work.  The Sassafras (Sassafras albidum) is a great native plant of the eastern North America.  Fall colors can include yellow, burnt orange, deep burgundy and scarlet.  It has been a favorite fall leaf of mine since I was a child.  On field trips, I find that children are attracted by the leaf shapes, so that is probably what first attracted me.  But I remember very clearly, as a youngster, collecting Sassafras leaves that showed the range of colors.

Right now, the meadows at Mariton are draped in Sassafras yellow.  Sassafras is early successional (or one of the first trees to reclaim an un-plowed field).   It likes light, but can be found in the woods at Mariton in filtered sunlight.  It reproduces from seeds inside the blue fleshy fruits found on female trees.  It also spreads from underground runners, so it can form clumps of clones (all genetically identical).  I mow the meadows in late winter, when the trees' energy is stored in the roots.  So, this management regime helps to promote Sassafras to spread in the meadows.

Sassafras oil is found in the trees' roots.  This is was a major component for flavoring of Root Beer, and Sassafras Tea.  There is now concern about the health effects of safrole, a chemical found in Sassafras oil.  Because of that, people are now advised to avoid Sassafras tea.  Artificial flavoring replaced Sassafras in root beer a long time ago. 

I am often asked about Sa'sparilla when people on walks smell Sassafras roots or Sweet Birch twigs.  The rhizomes from the native Wild Sarsaparilla (Aralia nudicaulis) were used for teas and probably a component of flavoring in root beer.  But the soft drink known as Sa'sparilla was probably made from the roots of Smilax officinalis, which is native to Central and South America.  (Source:  Common Flowering Plants of the Northeast by Donald D. Cox)

Mariton - Ginkgo

Right now the Ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba) in the yard is beautiful.  Carole Mebus captured these beautiful photos between showers on Tuesday.  The Ginkgo is an interesting tree.  It is a gymnosperm, or conifer, yet it has leaves instead of needles.  I have always had difficulty understanding how gymnosperms differed from angiosperms (flowering plants) until I re-read this explanation in Grolier's Field Guide to North American Trees by Thomas S. Elias.  "The one unifying feature of all conifers is their naked seeds.  That is, the seed-producing structures of the female flowers are not directly enclosed in tissue, as they are in hardwoods and other flowering plants."

Ginkgo trees made their way to North America from China.  They were planted here for their uniqueness, as well as fall beauty.  They tolerate air pollution and poor soils, so are ideal for city landscapes.  They also are long-lived and have very few diseases.  Interestingly, many scientists believe that the existing trees in China were planted by humans, and that there are no wild trees left on Earth.

You can't say Ginkgoes are native to North America, but there is a fossil record of closely related species on the continent.  In the Pacific Northwest, fossil leaves dating back to the Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous look identical to the present day Ginkgo biloba.  The genus probably disappeared from North America about the same time the dinosaurs became extinct.

The Tree at Mariton is a male.  Females produce a stinky fruit.  I have never experienced it, but am told it is quite awful.  So, males are generally planted along streets and in parks.  Dave Steckel, my go-to-guy for tree trivia, told me that male Ginkgoes occasionally switch sex to produce female flowers.  This usually happens when several males are planted together (like in a park). It reminds me of my favorite line in the movie Jurassic Park.