Trees & Shrubs, so many trees and shrubs

9/13/14 Ashland Hockessin, DE

Overcast, cool

At the end of this trees and shrubs field trip, many of my classmates voiced what we were probably all feeling - our brains were full. It was not quite a three-hour walk, but we had seen a staggering number of plants, learning how to identify them, and in my case, forgetting most of them again. This will be an ongoing learning process, no question.

Late Summer Wildflowers

August 28, 2014 Ashland Nature Center. Hockessin, Delaware

5:29 p.m. sunny with no clouds in the sky

The wildflowers course for the naturalist certification series was arranged a bit differently from our other lectures and field trips. Rather than learn a bit about the environments where we would likely find flowers and information on the plants themselves, both the lecture and the time in the field were focused on identification. We learned how to use a handy little book, Newcomb’s Guide to Wildflowers, which has a system based on examining the structure of a plant’s flower and leaves to narrow down what species it must be. Joe taught the class and recommended the Stokes Guide to Enjoying Wildflowers for further information about the flowers identified with Newcomb’s, and that was my first source for the information below.

Two ordinary, excellent weekends

We have entered a stretch with naturalist certification classes every two weeks as we wrap up the class, and I have a dozen wildflowers from my last class I need to research and write up here. But before I get too far into that project, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on the past two weekends, when I had the chance to take a couple groups of kids around Ashland.

I haven’t written about these hikes in a while, mostly because the scout and community groups that come for the overnight programs really slow down in the summer. But the two groups in August reminded me of why I am excited to work as a teacher-naturalist for the Delaware Nature Society.

Insect Hike

9 August 2014 Ashland Nature Center, Hockessin, DE

9 a.m. Sunny, 71 F

We started our morning insect walk in the auditorium at Ashland for an overview of collection methods, which was helpful for me since I had missed the lecture. From the first, it was useful information, as we learned that the mesh nets and the canvas nets we use with groups are not just a matter of preference but are designed for different jobs, which should have been obvious, in retrospect, but had not occurred to me. (Mesh nets are aerial nets, for catching insects in flight or when they have landed on top of vegetation. The canvas nets are used for sweeping through grasses and other vegetation, the way I am most accustomed to collecting at Ashland.)

The other methods we learned were interesting but not immediately applicable, pit traps and funnels, lights for collecting insects at night. With the overview done, the group grabbed aerial nets and jars and headed outside. The plan for the morning was to walk through four different habitats, starting with the gardens around the nature center.

Tiger swallowtail

Peck's skipper

The phlox at the beginning of the native pollinator garden was alive with butterflies, tiger swallowtails (Papilio glaucus), black swallowtails (Papilio polyxenes) and Peck’s skippers (Polites peckius).

Birding at Bucktoe Creek Preserve

I missed the Naturalist Certification Series birding field trip, so I made it up by joining a small group on the weekly Sunday morning bird walk at Bucktoe Creek Preserve, in southern Chester County. It was a great experience, and because it is regular and open to the public, I can wholeheartedly encourage anyone who wants to try this themselves to go! We had a friendly, funny and knowledgeable guide, and the half dozen of us along for the walk rounded out a good group from neophytes (my mom and me) to people who could have been guides themselves.

29 June Bucktoe Creek Preserve, Kennett Square

7:55 a.m. 70 degrees F sunny, not a cloud in the sky

We arrived just a few minutes early and found one person had already been sitting at the shelter by the parking lot for a while. It wasn’t a bad place to watch birds even without walking, in fact, as the expansive meadow in front of it, with forest to the left, provides good ecotone habitat for a diversity of birds, and they have set feeders near the shelters that bring near the less shy birds. Before we even set out we had seen a number of red-winged blackbirds, probably nesting in the meadow, tree swallows, barn swallows, and a red-bellied woodpecker that flew overhead.

Reptiles & Amphibians with the Naturalist Certification Series

Finding reptiles and, especially, amphibians has a mystique quite different from a bird walk or studying ecosystems. It needs to be done at night, and it involves playing in the water. The highlight of our night was exploring a Delmarva bay, seen above, but we found different animals in three separate locations down New Castle County.

31 May 2014

Middle Creek Natural Area

6:07 p.m. scattered clouds but mostly sunny, 75 degrees

Our first stop was brief but fun when Jim White led us to an old springhouse at Middle Run Natural Area, a county park just north of Newark where the restoration and biological diversity work is managed by the Delaware Nature Society. I had heard Jim describe the springhouses that dot our area as great habitat for long-tailed salamanders (Eurycea longicauda) a couple of times, but not having any ready access to one, I hadn’t seen them myself.

Terrestrial Ecosystems trip with Naturalist Certification Series

This account is of my second Naturalist Certification Series field trip and is quite long, but hopefully of interest for the variety of plants, animals and interactions they retell. There's more I should be doing to fully develop this entry, but I'm eager to finally get it posted, since it has already been more than a month.

17 May 2014

Burrows Run Preserve Hockessin, DE

8 a.m. Sunny

We gathered in the parking area just off Ashland Clinton Schoolhouse Road, surrounded by the tree swallows (Tachycineta bicolor) being studied by a University of Delaware graduate student for response to stress. Their comfort around people and their acrobatics above and around us immediately drew my attention, but being just a bit late, I hurried over to Joe who was starting to explain the day. We would be hiking through five distinct terrestrial ecosystems this morning, discovering what we could and learning about how the plants and animals in each interact.