Category: Nature
Philadelphia’s Top Trails
November 19, 2012[caption id="attachment_238" align="aligncenter" width="300"] On one of Schuylkill Center's Trails[/caption]
As Thanksgiving is fast approaching, you might be in need of an activity for your visiting family members.
Even as the weather starts to grow colder, the greater Philadelphia area offers many beautiful and relaxing nature trails. Try one of the following trails with your family, your partner, or even just for yourself this holiday season.
Looking for a more active day?
-Wissahickon's Green Ribbon Trail (20 miles): This multi-purpose path stretches along the Wissahickon Creek from Whitemarsh Township to a point near Lansdale Borough.
-Schuylkill River Trail (27 miles): Following the beautiful Schuylkill…
Butterfly Land
June 22, 2012As the mercury hovers around 100, people might wilt and retreat indoors—but the butterflies are having a ball. Summer is high season for butterflies, and the hotter it is, the happier they seem. In fact, driving down SCEE’s long driveway between the nature center and Hagy’s Mill Road, literally dozens of butterflies jump up from the dusty driveway to avoid the car, and dozens more flit across the driveway flying past.
We are Butterfly Land. Come see. Right now.
Just outside our front door, common milkweed is in full glorious bloom, perfect globular bursts that resemble pink fireworks. Smelling unbelievably…
Sex and the Single Firefly
June 5, 2012The male firefly, flashing in search of a female
By Mike Weilbacher, Exec Director
Saw my first firefly just last week, right after Memorial Day. For me, a naturalist who marks the passage of time by nature’s calendar, nothing says summer like an evening of fireflies.
And one of my favorite stories is the secrets of a firefly's flash.
When you see a cloud of fireflies rising from your lawn like liquid lightning, you are witnessing a stag party, a collection of horny males desperately seeking Susans-- every firefly flashing around you is male, the flash used to seduce a…
Bird above, wildflowers below
April 16, 2012By Executive Director Mike Weilbacher
Nature’s wildflower parade continues!
On a walk along our Ravine Loop last Saturday, the forest was awash in colors. While bloodroot is finished and done for the season, the cheerful caps of trout lily (below, right) poked through masses of Virginia bluebells. Two species of trillium, one a deep wine red, the other a
[caption id="attachment_207" align="alignleft" width="300"] White trillium[/caption]
bright white (left), also enlivened the forest floor.
We’ll be heading out this next Saturday at 8:30 a.m. to search for these—and other!—flowers. The walk, “Warblers and Wildflowers,” will have us looking two directions at…
From tailess to tail in a matter of hours…
March 27, 2012[caption id="attachment_187" align="alignleft" width="200"] "Imping" a Cooper's hawk's damaged tail[/caption]
Last week the staff of the wildlife clinic did something remarkable, especially for those of us who make our living working at a desk. They rebuilt a bird's tail.
The bird in question, a Cooper’s hawk, was brought into the clinic in February with multiple injuries, including head trauma and a severely damaged tail. The clinic nursed the bird for several weeks as it recovered from a concussion and regained its strength. The bird’s tail feathers, however, were still in tatters, preventing proper flight. As I learned from our clinic director,…
The Race is on: Flowers vs. Trees!
March 24, 2012[caption id="attachment_160" align="alignright" width="300"] The delicately pink-striped Spring Beauty[/caption]
It’s springtime in a forest: an ancient race between trees and flowers.
Here’s the deal: as spring comes to a forest, the trees are still naked and bare-branched, allowing streaming sunlight to strike—and warm!—the forest floor. Warmed by the sun’s rays, underground roots send up this year’s shoots and flowers, the fresh flowers giving pollinators like native bees, also waking up just now, their first taste of nectar in the new season.
[caption id="attachment_163" align="alignleft" width="200"] Virginia Bluebells, three colors in one flower![/caption]And as the flower is pollinated, it makes the…
A Thanksgiving Tale
November 17, 2011[caption id="attachment_123" align="alignleft" width="225" caption="The wildlife clinic is caring for this sick turkey"][/caption]
By Naomi Leach, Marketing and PR Coordinator
As the gobble, gobble holiday approaches, at least one turkey has reason to give thanks, to the staff at the Schuylkill Center’s Wildlife Rehab Clinic, who are working hard to save its life. The turkey was brought into the clinic Wednesday injured and very sick. Clinic staff are working to rehydrate and feed the emaciated bird and evaluate its condition, with the hope of eventually releasing it back into the wild.
The story began with a call to the clinic…
Growing a Bumper Crop of Butterflies
June 16, 2011By Mike Weilbacher, Executive Director
I love it when a plan works: walking up the back steps at my home this week, I glanced at the large pots where we keep our kitchen garden. What caught my eye was a bump on the end of a sprig of dill: a hunchbacked but handsomely striped insect, the unmistakable caterpillar of the black swallowtail, one of our largest, most striking butterflies.
But wait! A smaller lump below the caterpillar on another leaf was actually a second one. Then I spotted a third. Wait, there are six. No ten. Omigosh: I am the…
