March 9, 2010 at 3:27 pm (Susquehanna Riverlands)
Tags: Easter, spring, traditions
From the first flowers through the last of the colored eggs, explore the origins of the practices that welcome spring and how they were influenced by the natural world during this program from 1:30-3 p.m. Saturday, March 20 at PPL’s Susquehanna Riverlands.
We’ll lead a discussion about the natural events and the observances, myths and traditions from around the world that surround the time leading up to the vernal equinox and the coming of spring. Learn why the season associated with rebirth and renewal is connected now with rodents that deliver weather predictions, birds that deliver babies and a rabbit (or is it a hare?) that delivers candy. Parents of very young children are cautioned that some of the Easter Bunny’s deeper secrets may slip out during this program.
This program is free and will be take place at the Susquehanna Energy Information Center.
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February 22, 2010 at 1:38 pm (Susquehanna Riverlands, conservation, education, programs)
Tags: Leave no trace
Leaving no trace while visiting wilderness areas helps ensure that wild places stay wild and inviting. Learn how to reduce the size of the footprint you leave on the land during this program 1-4 p.m. Saturday, March 6 at PPL’s Susquehanna Riverlands.
Join Mike Yeager, a retired teacher, for an introduction to the basics of the leave no trace ethos. You will learn how what you bring, what equipment you use and even what you wear can make a huge difference on the land. Whether you frequent the most remote outpost or the busiest state park, this course can teach you how to leave the natural world as you found it so generations to come can know the pleasure of unspoiled wilderness.
This free program will take place at the Susquehanna Energy Information Center.
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February 12, 2010 at 3:37 pm (Susquehanna Riverlands, mammals, wildlife)
Get up close and personal with the skulls of many of our planet’s wilder residents during this program from 1:30-3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 28, at PPL’s Susquehanna Riverlands.
Dr. James Montgomery, environmental studies director of Ecology III, will share his expertise with us in this compelling program. We’ll learn some of the differences between the skulls of a meat-eating animal compared with a plant-eater, whether a skull can indicate the health of an animal when it was alive and how skulls show us the adaptations that help an animal compete in its environment.
This free program will take place at the Susquehanna Energy Information Center.
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February 12, 2010 at 3:35 pm (Susquehanna Riverlands, history)
PPL’s Susquehanna Riverlands once again welcomes the Pennsylvania Indian Artifact Collectors Association and its annual artifact exhibit from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 27, at the Susquehanna Energy Information Center.
Local association members will display their collections of tools, weapons and trade items, and will discuss the history and original use of the pieces. There will be flint-knapping demonstrations throughout the day and an atlatl (spear-thrower) exhibition, weather permitting. Visitors are encouraged to bring along artifacts they have found for identification.
For more information, contact association member Bill Vezendy at 570-759-1792.
The Susquehanna Riverlands, along Route 11 about seven miles north of Berwick, is operated by PPL in conjunction with its Susquehanna nuclear power plant in Salem Township. The preserve, encompassing 1,200 acres on both the east and west banks of the Susquehanna River, has been providing the residents of north central Pennsylvania with quality recreation, fishing and environmental education since 1980.
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January 27, 2010 at 10:07 am (Activities, Susquehanna Riverlands, nature, observations, seasons, weather)
Tags: musings
The last few days of higher temperatures have all but eliminated the recent snow. But before it left I did get a chance last week to do one of my favorite things: a solitary walk through a quiet, snowy wood. Some people are adrenaline-junkies — they have to be crashing through something or speeding over something or climbing up something to be happy. But for me, nothing compares to crunching slowly along a frosty path as the snow lends a softness and stateliness to the most mundane of objects; escaping into my thoughts, rather than away from them. Obstacles that seemed insurmountable before a walk like that always seem to have shrunk to a more manageable size after one.
Of course, the solitude was largely an illusion. I was walking by myself, true. But the sound of drivers traveling along nearby Route 11 occasionally drifted through the trees. At one point, an airplane, presumably full of passengers, left a contrail in the sky high overhead. And at my feet, I saw the footprints of dozens of people who had come to walk the trails at the Susquehanna Riverlands. Many were accompanied by the meandering prints of the family dog.
I took a great deal of comfort from those footprints. It doesn’t matter how much you enjoy your job, there are always days when the alarm clock seems to ring too early and the hours drag too long. But those days go a little easier when you get a reminder of how many visitors come to our facility, how many benefit from the efforts we put forth. Many of those people, like me, come to these trails to slow down, to recharge, to be alone with their thoughts. Ok, so technically none of us were ever truly alone — but that doesn’t really matter.
Sometimes the illusion of solitude is enough.
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January 8, 2010 at 4:01 pm (Susquehanna Riverlands, birds, nature, observations, wildlife)
A juvenile Cooper’s hawk has been staking out our bird feeder in the Susquehanna Riverlands environmental preserve. We see him there almost every day, perched on his favorite branch, fascinated by the constant comings and goings of the chickadees, titmice and juncos. It’s the perfect place for a young, inexperienced hunter to hone his skills and wait for warmer weather.
Inevitably, I came out one morning to find a pile of soft, downy fluff on the cold, hard surface of a snow-covered rock. The hawk had made a kill.
Immediately, my sympathy went to the little bird that had lost its life, that had come simply looking for food and ended up becoming food. Countless cartoons, fairy tales, books and movies train us to think of the predator as the bad guy.
But watching the hawk later that day, feathers puffed out against the biting cold, a keen look of gnawing hunger in his eyes, I saw it for what it was: simply another creature trying to survive the frigid Pennsylvania winter the best it can.
Nature isn’t one or the other — the soft feathers or the hard rock — it’s both. It is both cruel and kind, at once aloof and nurturing. From each death, new life springs up somewhere else. Nutrients are passed up and down through the food chain, always moving and transforming, but never disappearing.
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December 2, 2009 at 11:57 am (Pennsylvania, Susquehanna Riverlands, mammals, nature, observations, wildlife)
Tags: beavers, wetlands
There are beavers living in the Susquehanna Wetlands Nature Area, but we almost never see them. Avidly hunted by humans for centuries for their luxurious fur, beavers have learned the hard way to be shy and elusive. And with their keen senses of hearing and smell, beavers can detect the heavy footfalls and exotic scents of a casual human hiker long before they get close. Combined with their nocturnal lifestyle, this makes beavers a rare sight, even for people who spend a lot of time outdoors. More often, we are left with the signs that they have passed by.
A sure sign that they are in the area is trees like these that have been girdled by beavers in search of food. Contrary to popular belief, beavers never eat fish. They are strict vegetarians, feeding mostly on tender shoots, cattails and their favorite: the soft bark of young trees. Even if they are not felling trees to make dams, they will often chew the bark around the base of the tree as a tasty snack. Sometimes they will keep going into the heartwood of the tree because beavers, like all rodents, must frequently gnaw to keep their continuously-growing teeth worn down.
As you might expect, this is not a particularly healthy turn of events for the tree.
When I take kids through the wetlands and we see a beaver-chewed tree, they are often struck by how much it looks exactly like what they thought it would look like: the shape of the chew is almost exactly as it is depicted in cartoons!
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November 17, 2009 at 4:13 pm (Susquehanna Riverlands, observations, wildlife)
Tags: dragonflies, insects
Dragonflies are hawkers, meaning that they prefer to take their prey on the wing. Using their huge, wrap-around eyes and flight skills that would be the envy of the any human fighter pilot, they dart out after any prey they can physically dominate. Then they retire to a convenient roost for a leisurely lunch.
This fellow was taking advantage of an unseasonably warm November afternoon in the Susquehanna Riverlands to hunt some flies. The fact that the perch he chose to rest on while devouring his prey was the leg of a human about 1,000 times his size seemed to bother him not in the least.
He didn’t seem to be bothered by how frayed the edges of my pants were, either (which I kind of didn’t notice until I posted this). I take that fraying as a badge of honor, though. A naturalist should spend enough time outdoors to fray his pants a little. Makes me feel more authentic, somehow. I just have to be careful not to let them get TOO authentic! Note to self: go pants shopping.
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November 9, 2009 at 3:24 pm (Pennsylvania, Susquehanna Riverlands, observations, wildlife)
Tags: snapping turtle
A baby snapping turtle makes its way across the road at the wetlands nature area at the Susquehanna Riverlands.
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November 5, 2009 at 3:33 pm (Susquehanna Riverlands, birds, migration, observations, wildlife)
Tags: bald eagles
While working in the park on Friday I happened to catch sight of a bald eagle in a tree along the canal. My camera not being the best, I knew I had to get closer to get a good shot. But despite their size, bald eagles are somewhat skittish. So, I tried to take a rambling, random-seeming route in the general direction of his perch; all the while being careful to avoid eye contact and still trying to snap a couple pictures on the way. I’m glad no one else was around because I probably looked pretty foolish. And to add insult to injury I was unsuccessful, anyway: the eagle flew away before I got very close at all. The picture above is the best one I got.
Bald eagles are occasional visitors here at the Susquehanna Riverlands, and becoming more frequent. Researchers for www.Hawkcount.org have reported seeing 34 eagles moving past the park along the Susquehanna since August of this year.
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