Tag: news-import

Baby Squirrels in November: Unusual Wildlife at the Clinic

By Rick Schubert, Director of Rehabilitation, the Wildlife Clinic Anyone who has worked on a farm in a temperate climate knows that winter is no time to take a break; wintertime is a race against the clock, reorganizing, repairing, cleaning, planning, and preparing for the upcoming busy season.  Wildlife rehabilitation is no different.  Although we take in injured adult wild animals 12 months a year, our business spikes in the spring, summer, and fall with the addition of orphaned and displaced neonates.  Usually, winter is a slower time for wildlife patient intakes, but it’s a critical period to spend getting…

Continue reading

Find Nature – Philadelphia: Guest Post from Lauren Ferri

By Lauren Ferri, posted from Finding Nature Philadelphia Growing up in the suburbs of New York, I had a huge yard with plenty of space to roam and explore. I remember playing outdoors for hours as a child, unearthing rocks and breaking them open hoping to find gems. I would dig through the dirt, pretending to be an archaeologist looking for lost cities and treasures. We had a garden where I would help my mother harvest lettuce, cucumbers, eggplants and tomatoes. Fortunately I didn't have to leave my property to experience the beauty and wonder of nature. These experiences left…

Continue reading

Vernal stirrings: Spring has come to our fields and forests

By Anna Lehr Mueser, Public Relations Manager Today we mark the vernal equinox, the moment when winter, officially, becomes spring.  Edith Holden, who, in 1906 published The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady, notes that March was named “stormy month” by the Anglo-Saxons.  Indeed, it has been a stormy March, with more to come, it seems. But let’s take a moment now to feel glad that spring is truly on the way. We see it in the small green things pushing up from dead leaves and in the many trays of transplants growing in our Native Plant Nursery; red maple…

Continue reading

Photography as Art at Nature Preschool

The first edition of Children Need Nature, a monthly message from our Nature Preschool. Read more posts here. Photography as Art A Nature Preschool Exploration With the advent of the Frost exhibit here at the Schuylkill Center, we have been delving deeper into art.    In particular, we are exploring the many ways that art can be expressed – through sculpture, painting, print, fabric, and even photography.  We visited the exhibit as a group and looked in particular at the photographs.  The children were able to describe the photos and express the emotions they felt when looking at them.  They ran the gamut…

Continue reading

How Do You See Nature? Winners and Runners-Up

We were thrilled to see over 150 entries to the photo contest, and we thank all of those who shared their photographs with us.   Three winners were chosen by a panel of Schuylkill Center staff. Winners: [gallery type="circle" ids="522,516,592"] We're also happy to honor six runners-up.  Christina Catanese and Anna Lehr Mueser comment on the runner-up photographs below. Runners-up: From Christina Catanese, Director of Environmental Art: [caption id="attachment_595" align="alignleft" width="300"] Lea Gooneratne-Riedi[/caption] In the winter woods, we can often find evidence of animals in the landscape even when we can’t see them, and I love that this photo shows…

Continue reading

What does the toad say?

[gallery type="circle" ids="532,531,529"] By Claire Morgan, Volunteer and Garden Coordinator, Gift Shop Manager Pretty soon, we’ll be hearing a lot of what the toad says!  In early to mid- March we will start to hear the sound of the American Toad, Bufo Americanus, with its high pitched trill calling for a mate, as they do each spring.  Here in Roxborough, at the Schuylkill Center, we’ll be watching and listening during those early spring evenings.  When the evening temperature rises to 50 degrees and the ground is moist, the American Toads start to make their journey out of the woods of…

Continue reading

Long tables covered with white tablecloths surrounded by white chairs in a large clearing surrounded by tall trees.

Getting Creative with Communications

Cross-posted from Healthy Waters for EPA's Mid-Atlantic Region, February 6, 2014. By Christina Catanese, Director of Environmental Art During my time at EPA, I’ve learned so much about water protection, from permits to enforcement, from regulations to partnerships, from large national actions to things anyone can do to protect their waters.  Managing the Healthy Waters Blog, along with other digital communications, ­­I’ve also thought a lot about how best to communicate the work EPA does in water protection outside our agency’s boundaries.  I’ve found that, consistently, our most effective communications have been those that make visible the real impacts of…

Continue reading

How do you see nature? Schuylkill Center photo contest 2014

In celebration of the opening of Frost in the Environmental Art Gallery, the Schuylkill Center invites community members to send photos to our Winter 2014 Photo Contest. Submit your winter photos by February 27! More about Frost: It is safe to say, this has been a winter of surprises, with temperatures plummeting well below what we usually expect for this region and snowfall far above.  This cold is actually at the heart of our upcoming exhibition, Frost.  We’re thrilled to welcome two Philadelphia artists to take on winter with a show that runs from February 15 – April 18.  Amie…

Continue reading

The Schuylkill Center Logo with the name and logo of a leaf with the Philadelphia skyline in it.

Winter in the Forest

By Melissa Nase, Manager of Land Stewardship Winter provides a simplified, yet inspiring version of the forest we know so well in other seasons.  I welcome its cool, calm colors after many weeks of the unrelenting holiday glitz and chaotic pace.  In many ways, it is so much easier to proverbially, “see the forest for the trees” in this season.  Uncovering the beauty and details of this place during winter is magical.  Especially after a snow, the silence paired with the subdued greys and whites removes the sensory overload that can distract in other seasons.  Texture, pattern, and form come…

Continue reading