What a great turnout for our Spring Bird Walk in Glen Providence Park this morning – we had 22 people, including 2 kids, and 2 members of the Penncrest High School Envirothon team! We were led by Tom Bush of the Birding Club of Delaware County, who took time to show us what birds to look for before we started, and gave us helpful tips during the walk. While the rain held out, we heard more birds than we saw, reminding us how helpful it is to learn bird songs!

We saw oodles of endearing Catbirds, a Red-eyed Vireo, Baltimore Orioles, and Yellow-rumped Warblers, and heard many birds including the ever-lovely Wood Thrush. Some of us lingered afterwards listening as activity increased – new for me was the buzzy call of the Green-throated Warbler, “trees, trees, murmuring trees.”

Thank you to Tom Bush for leading us, to naturalist Tom Reeves for joining us, and to the birders of all ages who came out early on a Saturday morning!

Spring Bird Walk eBird List

May 6, 2017
32 species

A Wood Thrush I saw hopping along the trail two days earlier. It is likely one of the ones we heard calling on our walk!

2 – Canada Goose
1 – Great Blue Heron
2 – Turkey Vulture
1 – Sharp-shinned Hawk
4 – Mourning Dove
4 – Red-bellied Woodpecker
2 – Downy Woodpecker
1 – Hairy Woodpecker
1 – Northern Flicker
1 – Eastern Phoebe
1 – Great Crested Flycatcher
4 – Red-eyed Vireo
6 – Blue Jay 
3 – American Crow
2 – Carolina Chickadee
5 – Tufted Titmouse
4 – House Wren
4 – Carolina Wren
2 – Veery
2 – Wood Thrush
7 – American Robin
16 – Gray Catbird
2 – Northern Parula
1 – Blackpoll Warbler
1 – Black-throated Blue Warbler
5 – Yellow-rumped Warbler
1 – Black-throated Green Warbler
5 – Song Sparrow
2 – Eastern Towhee
3 – Northern Cardinal
1 – Brown-headed Cowbird                
3 – Baltimore Oriole

Join us for a bird walk in Glen Providence Park during spring migration! We’ll look for warblers and all sorts of other migrants, and see if we can add to the 127 species on the park’s bird list. This walk will be led by Tom Bush – he’s a lifelong birder, an officer of the Birding Club of Delaware County, and he has led bird walks at Smedley Park and John Heinz NWR. Tom has been on several of our walks – we are delighted that he will be leading this one! 

Spring Bird Walk

Saturday, May 6, 2016
7:30-9:30am
*Kirk Lane entrance
Rain or shine

Logistics:

• * Please note the location- we are starting at the Upper Providence entrance at Third Street and Kirk Lane. *
• Estimated distance: 1-1.5 miles
• Estimated time: 2 hours
• Rain or shine
• Free!
• Be prepared for steep hills, and uneven (possibly wet) terrain: wear your hiking shoes, bring a hiking pole if you use one… and of course binoculars and your favorite bird book or app!

Throughout November, we have been counting down to Thanksgiving by posting daily thanks on Facebook. There is some overlap with our lists from Thanksgiving in 2012 and 2014, and so much more to add – it is amazing how much there is to be grateful for! Here are those daily posts – these were in no particular order, and it is by no means a complete list!

Day 1: … long-time park supervisor James Stokes, Jr. for his years of care for the park. He started work on October 31, 1935 and continued for at least 25 years, and by all accounts really loved Glen Providence Park. He served as park guard, caretaker, supervisor, and park ranger – personally building picnic tables, preparing for concerts, planting trees & flowers, teaching visitors about the plants & wildlife, and creating the 1941 Nature Guide to Glen Providence Park!

Day 2: … the local schools that use Glen Providence Park as an outdoor classroom and for service learning, teaching their students a love of nature, science, art, and more. Thank you Media Elementary School, Springton Lake Middle School, Media Providence Friends School, Penncrest High School – and homeschoolers!

Day 3: … Delaware County Parks & Recreation, for resurfacing the historical WPA stage last summer in time for the park’s 80th anniversary celebration, for their support of our events and activities, and for their many years of caretaking and managing their 621 acres (and growing!) of open space for the public.

Day 4: … all that Chester-Ridley-Crum Watersheds Association has done since 1970 to protect, conserve, and restore the watersheds throughout its 132 square mile stewardship area! Its initiatives include annual streams cleanups, riparian reforestation, advocacy, education, and stream monitoring. We are honored to receive their Organizational Stewardship Award this year!  

Day 5: … our Nature Walk guides and monthly event leaders who volunteered their time in the past two years: the ever-helpful Al Guarente of the Birding Club of Delaware County, Gary Stolz, David Hewitt, Shannon Davidson, Marcia Tate, Stephanie Gaboriault, Kyle Loucks, George Tate, the Media-Upper Providence Free Library, Holly Hoffmann, Aura Lester, and Charles Randall.

Day 6: … Taylor Memorial Arboretum in Wallingford, for generously growing and donating native trees and shrubs each year for habitat restoration plantings by other organizations – including for our past four National Public Lands Days!

Day 7: … the Delaware County Institute of Science, an amazing organization that has been all volunteer since 1833.  It has wonderful scientific and historical collections, and is well worth a visit. Its members have been studying Glen Providence Park since before it was a park – a 1928 Chester Times article about the valley indicated that “Naturalists, from all over the country, attending the Delaware County Institute of Science, make a study of it.”  

Day 8: … EllieReed Lewis and Clifford Butler Lewis, the grandchildren of park donors George and Eleanor Butler –  for sharing their recollections from childhood in Glen Providence Park, and for celebrating the park’s 80th anniversary with us last summer!

Day 9: … our Invasive Plant Removal volunteers, who meet most Friday mornings to work in the park. In the past 4 years, they have cleared over 250 packed contractor bags of invasive plants – keeping trails clear, liberating native plants from strangling vines, improving habitat, and beautifying the park.

Day 10: … those who have made our historical research possible, including the Media Historic Archives, the Delaware County Historical Society, and the Newspaper Archives of Delaware County Library – and Delaware County, PA History for sharing our history-related facebook posts.

Day 11: … the Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts for their years of involvement in Glen Providence Park going back to at least 1939 – with hikes, cookouts, award ceremonies, meetings, and community service. In the past few years, Brownie Troop #5248 and Minquas District Boy Scouts have volunteered, and Girl Scout Troop #5037 and Pack 503’s Webelos II have had meetings and outings in the park!

Day 12: … our wonderfully generous Concert Sponsors: Media Recreation Board, Media Rotary Foundation, Diego’s Cantina, Seven Stones Café, Shere-e-Punjab Indian Restaurant, Sterling Pig, and Tagine, who made it possible for us to revive the decades-long tradition of free summer concerts in Glen Providence Park.

Day 13: … Media Lions Club and McCarrin Chiropractic, for continuing Glen Providence Park’s longest-running tradition – the Great Media Easter Egg Hunt started in 1954! The Lions have worked since 1917 to fight blindness, and on many other community projects.

Day 14: … the American Chestnut Foundation, for their work to restore this once-majestic native tree, decimated by blight in the early 1900’s. Chestnuts were called the Sequoias of the east, and we know from T. Chalkley Palmer’s 1889 writings that the park’s eastern hill was once “continuously wooded with oaks and chestnuts.” We have found two surviving trees so far!

Day 15:  … all of the volunteers who have spent their free time working for Glen Providence Park through the years – our dedicated committee members, the dozens of people who have helped at our 17 volunteer days, and all those who volunteered in the park before us.

Day 16: … the Pennsylvania Amphibian & Reptile Survey (PARS), for their work to gather data for the study and conservation of our amphibians and reptiles, and for leading 3 Herpetology Walks in Glen Providence Park! We’ve documented 18 species in the park so far…

Day 17: … Samuel L. Smedley, who with great foresight and wisdom in 1927 urged regional planning for open space, and spearheaded the creation of Delaware County Parks & Recreation, which was used as a model nationally for its excellent planning. He personally helped create and plan Glen Providence Park.

Day 18: … all of those who appreciate our efforts to preserve and enhance Glen Providence Park – whether by reading our newsletter and website, attending our concerts and nature walks, or saying a kind word when they see us in the park – and of course our Facebook fans!

Day 19: … the Delaware County Conservation District for their guidance, mini-grants, donations, use of their Conservation Trailer, and support for our native plantings over the past 5 years – helping us to combat streamside erosion, restore habitat, provide food for wildlife, and  beautify the park.

Day 20: … our donors, whose generous support enables us to continue our work to improve the park and plan future concerts, plantings, events, and activities!

Day 21: … the array of wildlife, native plants, and all living things in the park, which with the changing seasons provide something new to discover on every walk in Glen Providence Park.

Day 22: … Hedgerow Theatre, for their enchanting performances at the WPA stage – enacting the park’s historical Newlywed Ghost and Witch Stories for Glen Providence’s 80th anniversary last year, and bringing Shakespeare to the park this summer!

Day 23: … T. Chalkley Palmer, 1860-1934, for writing in loving detail about Scroggie Valley in 1889, enabling us all these years later to read about the geology, landscape, flora, and fauna of Glen Providence Park as it was in the 1800′s. He also had remarkable environmental insights for his time. What a gift!

Day 24 of Thanks: We are so thankful for George and Eleanor Butler, who with great generosity and foresight in 1935 donated most of the land for Glen Providence Park as a Bird Sanctuary and Arboretum, to be preserved for future generations. There would be no park without them – we are incredibly grateful!

Happy Thanksgiving!

What a wonderful (if rainy!) bird walk this morning in Glen Providence Park! Spring migration did not disappoint – led by Al Guarente, we identified 45 species of birds. The additions of Pine Warbler, Common Loon, and Yellow-billed Cuckoo bring our Park Bird List to 123 species! Other highlights were a Spotted Sandpiper at the pond, Baltimore Oriole, Rose-Breasted Grosbeak, Ovenbird, Veery, and of course hearing the ever-lovely Wood Thrush.

Thank you to Al Guarente of the Birding Club of Delaware County for leading his 6th(!) bird walk for us, to Dave Eberly for joining us, and to the intrepid birders who joined us on a cold and rainy morning.
 

Spring Bird Walk eBird List:

May 7, 2016
45 species

1 – Canada Goose
2 – Mallard
1 – Common Loon
2 – Spotted Sandpiper
2 – Solitary Sandpiper
1 – Yellow-billed Cuckoo
1 – Belted Kingfisher
2 – Red-bellied Woodpecker
1 – Downy Woodpecker
2 – Hairy Woodpecker
1 – Northern Flicker
1 – Eastern Phoebe
1 – Great Crested Flycatcher
1 – Yellow-throated Vireo
1 – Blue-headed Vireo
1 – Red-eyed Vireo
1 – Blue Jay
1 – American Crow
1 – Carolina Chickadee
2 – Tufted Titmouse
2 – House Wren
4 – Carolina Wren
1 – Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
1 – Veery
2 – Wood Thrush
1 – American Robin
5 – Gray Catbird
1 – Ovenbird
1 – Black-and-white Warbler
3 – Common Yellowthroat
1 – American Redstart
1 – Northern Parula
1 – Yellow Warbler
1 – Pine Warbler
1 – Yellow-rumped Warbler
1 – Chipping Sparrow
2 – White-throated Sparrow
1 – Song Sparrow
1 – Scarlet Tanager
5 – Northern Cardinal
3 – Rose-breasted Grosbeak
1 – Brown-headed Cowbird
2 – Baltimore Oriole
2 – House Finch
1 – American Goldfinch

Join us for a bird walk in Glen Providence Park during spring migration! We’ll look for warblers and all sorts of other migrants – and see if we can add to the 120 species on the park’s bird list. This walk will be led by Al Guarente of the Birding Club of Delaware County – it will be the 6th bird walk that Al has led for us!
 

Spring Bird Walk

Saturday, May 7, 2016
7:30-9:30am
*Kirk Lane entrance
Rain or shine

Logistics:

• * Please note the location- we are starting at the Upper Providence entrance at Third Street and Kirk Lane. *
• Estimated distance: 1-1.5 miles
• Estimated time: 2 hours
• Rain or shine
• Free!
• Be prepared for steep hills, and uneven (possibly wet) terrain: wear your hiking shoes, and bring a hiking pole if you use one… and of course binoculars and your favorite bird book or app!

We experienced several trail conditions at our Winter Bird Walk in Glen Providence Park on Sunday, from ice and snow to slush and mud! Despite the challenging trails and cold weather, the birds were active and cooperative. We spotted a nice array of species, including multiple kinds of woodpeckers, sparrows, hawks and crows. An ever-endearing Brown Creeper (in photo) seemed to follow us along the path, while a Winter Wren determinedly hid from us in some brush. Throughout the park, we encountered remarkably chatty and active Carolina Wrens. As we finished, we were treated to pairs of Hooded Mergansers and Black Ducks, then a flock of Snow Geese flew overhead!

It was an appropriate first event for the 80th Anniversary year of Glen Providence Park, which George and Eleanor Butler donated in 1935 as a Bird Sanctuary and Arboretum!

Thank you so much to the intrepid souls who attended, and to Al Guarente of the Birding Club of Delaware County for leading his 5th bird walk for us!

Winter Bird Walk eBird list:

January 25, 2015
27 species

200 – Snow Goose
100 – Canada Goose
2 – American Black Duck
25 – Mallard
3 – Hooded Merganser
1 – Turkey Vulture
1 – Red-shouldered Hawk
1 – Red-tailed Hawk
1 – Mourning Dove
3 – Red-bellied Woodpecker
5 – Downy Woodpecker
1 – Hairy Woodpecker
1 – Northern Flicker
3 – Blue Jay
2 – American Crow
1 – Fish Crow
15 – Carolina Chickadee
20 – Tufted Titmouse
3 – White-breasted Nuthatch
1 – Brown Creeper
1 – Winter Wren
10 – Carolina Wren
1 – Song Sparrow
10 – White-throated Sparrow
20 – Dark-eyed Junco
5 – Northern Cardinal
1 – American Goldfinch

We will kick off our 2015 events in Glen Providence Park with a winter bird walk! It seems like a fitting way to start the 80th anniversary year of this park, which was donated as a Bird Sanctuary and Arboretum in 1935 by George and Eleanor Butler. This bird walk will be led by Al Guarente of the Birding Club of Delaware County – it will be the 5th bird walk that Al has led for us!
 

Winter Bird Walk

Sunday, January 25
9:00-11:00am
Snow or shine
* Park entrance at 3rd Street & Kirk Lane in Upper Providence *

Logistics:

• * Please note the location- we are starting at the Upper Providence entrance at Third Street and Kirk Lane. *
• Estimated distance: 1-1.5 miles
• Estimated time: 2 hours
• Snow or shine
• Free!
• Be prepared for steep hills, and uneven (possibly wet) terrain: wear your hiking shoes, and bring a hiking pole if you use one… and of course binoculars!

Photo is of a juvenile Cooper’s Hawk in Glen Providence Park.

Fall is such a beautiful season in Glen Providence Park, and after record rainfall in summer 2013, last autumn was relatively free of extreme weather. I had less time than usual for photo walks in the park, ironically due to taking a 10-week Pennsylvania Master Naturalist course. But we continued to document the park’s plants and animals to create a record that we can refer back to for future comparison, and the walks I did take were usually rewarded with interesting sightings.

There were flurries of fall migration in late September and early October, including some additions to our Park Bird List – bringing us to 103 species by the end of November! Sightings included Magnolia Warbler, Philadelphia Vireo ( species #102), Northern Parula, and Chestnut-sided Warbler (#103!) – as always, thank you to Al Guarente of the Birding Club of Delaware County for confirming our new ID’s.

Some of the smallest discoveries are the most enchanting, including what we called a “star-bellied” fungi, an elegantly fuzzy caterpillar on a native blackberry leaf, and adorable baby Wood Frogs. These aptly named forest-dwelling frogs breed in vernal pools (ephemeral wetlands) – we saw several baby Wood Frogs last October.

That Pennsylvania Master Naturalist course helped me ID species in the park, such as the native and enigmatically-named Hog Peanut vine, Amphicarpaea bracteata. At one of the classes, Rose Tree Park Hawkwatch’s Holly Merker taught us that the Red-tailed Hawk’s “scream” is often used with video footage of Bald Eagles, because its scream is more intimidating than the eagle’s. You can frequently hear the Red-tailed Hawk in the park, as it is our most common hawk species!

Fall brings school classes that use Glen Providence Park as an outdoor classroom. In October, we encountered Penncrest High School 9th grade Environmental Science students conducting their annual pond studies in the park. In November, we helped Media Providence Friends School 5th graders install educational plant tags they had created for our National Public Lands Day plantings. The students were enthusiastic and had fun – what a wonderful service learning project!

In November we had a treat walking through the park with Clifford Butler Lewis, the grandson of park founders George and Eleanor Butler!  It was wonderful to hear his recollections from growing up here. We photographed Cliff by the (now dry) Eleanor Reed Butler waterfall, which was one of the park’s original structures, and was later renovated in 1949 in honor of Cliff’s grandmother. It was Eleanor Butler who specified that Glen Providence Park was to be preserved as a Bird Sanctuary and Arboretum!

You can click on any photo below for a closer look, and scroll through them all – and you can also view them on our flickr page! There are more pictures in our facebook albums, and in our Fall 1.1 Acre Project photos. You can compare our 2013 autumn to other years in my photojournals for September, October and November 2011, and from Fall 2012.

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What a beautiful, crisp spring morning in Glen Providence Park on Saturday for our Bird & Spring Ephemerals Walk! We saw 30 species including Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, Ruby-crowned Kinglets, and a Black-and-white Warbler. Spring ephemerals and native flowers included Jack-in-the-Pulpit, Merrybells, Bloodroot, and Trout Lilies.

Thank you to everyone who attended, the Birding Club of Delaware County, to Nathaniel Sharp for entering our sightings on eBird, George Tate for the wonderful photos, and of course to Al Guarente and Marcia Tate for leading our walk!

You can see the full bird list from our walk below, and scroll below that for photos. And you can check out our complete Park Bird List of 109 species, and counting!

Spring Bird Walk eBird list:
April 26, 2014

Canada Goose – 2
Mallard – 4
Great Blue Heron – 1
Turkey Vulture – 2
Mourning Dove – 3
Belted Kingfisher – 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker – 2
Downy Woodpecker – 3
Northern Flicker – 1
Eastern Phoebe – 2
Blue Jay – 5
American Crow – 8
Northern Rough-winged Swallow – 3
Carolina Chickadee – 6
Tufted Titmouse – 12
White-breasted Nuthatch – 2
House Wren – 1
Carolina Wren – 4
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher – 2
Ruby-crowned Kinglet – 2
American Robin
European Starling
Black-and-white Warbler – 1
Chipping Sparrow – 1
Song Sparrow – 5
White-throated Sparrow – 7
Northern Cardinal – 7
Red-winged Blackbird – 1
Brown-headed Cowbird – 2
American Goldfinch – 5

Spring is finally arriving in Glen Providence Park – soon flowers will emerge, and bird song will fill the woods! Learn to identify those birds and flowers while enjoying a morning walk through the park.  We’ll see if we can add to the 105 species on our Glen Providence Park Bird List, and see what is blooming along the way in this late-emerging Spring.

Bird & Spring Ephemerals Walk

Saturday, April 26
7:30-9:30am
Rain or shine
* Park entrance at 3rd Street & Kirk Lane in Upper Providence *
 

This bird walk will be led by Al Guarente of the Birding Club of Delaware County (BCDC).  Al is a wealth of knowledge, and has helped us identify birds from our photographs. He has led three bird walks for us so far, in February 2012, November 2012, and June 2013.  Al contributed to our 2012 Birding Big Year, in fact he announced it on the BCDC blog before we did!

Our wonderful native plant expert and garden coach Marcia Tate will also help us look for native ephemeral (short-lasting) flowers, buds, and other signs of Spring.  Appropriately enough, this falls during Transition Town Media’s Happiness Week –  what could be happier than looking for Spring birds and flowers?

* Please note the location- we are starting at the Upper Providence entrance at Third Street and Kirk Lane. *

Logistics:

• Estimated distance: 1-1.5 miles
• Estimated time: 1.5-2 hours
• Rain or shine
• Free!
• Be prepared for steep hills, and uneven (possibly wet) terrain: wear your hiking shoes, and bring a hiking pole if you use one… and of course binoculars!

To add this event to your favorite calendar program (iCal, Outlook, Google, etc.), view the event listing on our calendar.