On this first day of fall, a look back to last year’s autumn beauty in Glen Providence Park! I spent some lovely and serene fall mornings along the trails and at the pond, encountering wildlife and interesting plants. Foliage seems to be starting slightly later each year – it had barely begun changing in early October, and did not peak until the end of the month. Early dustings of snow hinted at the upcoming snowy winter – on November 13, and again on Thanksgiving day!

Some wildlife encounters are more eventful than others… One early November hike took an exciting turn when we came across two White-tailed bucks scuffling over a doe! A few times it seemed they might charge at us. We were startled one morning during our weekly Invasives Removal to come face-to-face with an Eastern Garter Snake in a tree we were liberating from invasive vines. I saw my first Black Squirrel, which I had heard about living in Media, but had never seen. As a melanistic variety of the Eastern Gray Squirrel, individual Black Squirrels can exist wherever Gray Squirrels live.

I always watch for birds, which we continue to document on eBird for our Park Bird List. The park was frequented for a few weeks by a flock of up to 100 Common Grackles – they can be noisy, making odd sounds like rusty gates and like clucking – and they are entertaining to watch! Mallards returned to the pond with their occasional antics, with Winter Wren and Cooper’s Hawk being other birds I managed to photograph… you can view park sightings on eBird for the fall migration months of August through November to see what to expect in the fall!

With all the beautiful foliage, it can be hard to remember to look down, but don’t miss what is on the forest floor! In the past several years I have seen some amazingly varied fungi in the park – I would like to learn much more about them. Clubmosses, Lycopodiopsida, are primitive plants that reproduce through spores. According to wikipedia, the spores were used in Victorian theater to produce flame-effects(!), burning rapidly and brightly, with little heat.

Our monthly events last fall were our fun and rewarding annual planting day for National Public Lands Day in September, an engaging Scavenger Hunt for Kids in October, and a wonderful Geology Walk in November.

You can click on any photo below for a closer look, or scroll through them all! There are more pictures in our facebook albums. You can compare our 2014 autumn to other years in my photojournals for September, October and November 2011, and from Fall 2012 and Fall 2013.

Photos by author.

After a long, cold, snowy winter, 2014 brought a later spring than usual in Glen Providence Park – it snowed as late as St. Patrick’s Day. Early spring ephemeral flowers bloomed in the park about 4 days later than in 2013, which had been 17 days later than the very warm Spring of 2012!

Spring bird sightings brought our Park Bird List up to 112 species with additions including Wild Turkey(!), Worm-eating Warbler, Cooper’s and Broad-winged Hawks, and a Mother’s Day Yellow-throated Vireo! We observed a Pileated Woodpecker over several days as it bored a series of holes in a tree, and watched a pair of Tufted Titmouse take deliveries of moss to their nest. Exciting sightings at the pond were remarkably-patterned Wood Ducks, and Solitary Sandpipers!

For our third year, we tracked the timing of the emergence in the park of both emphemeral Bloodroot flowers and American Toads. Each year, the toads have emerged at the pond 5-6 days after the Bloodroot buds appeared on the western hill, or 4-5 days after the full Bloodroot flowers. In 2014, the Bloodroot buds appeared on April 7, and the toads 5 days later on April 12 – the same day as the 60th Anniversary Great Media Easter Egg Hunt! You can read a father’s charming account of taking his daughters to the Egg Hunt and to see the toads at the pond. For more on “phenology,” the study of timing in nature, see our Spring 2013 photojournal.

In Summer, Delaware County Parks & Recreation did substantial work in the park, with emergency streambank repairs by the pond, and repairs to the historical stage from a fallen 110-year-old White Ash. We watched fly fishing lessons at the pond by Delco Manning Trout Unlimited and Sporting Gentleman, enjoyed our third year of summer concerts in the park, and we celebrated our 3rd Anniversary!

Click on any photo below for a closer look, or scroll through them all. You can compare our 2014 spring and summer to other years in my photojournals, starting in August 2011. And many of these photos have more detailed captions in our Facebook albums. 

In 2013, we kept a photojournal to document the planned construction area in Glen Providence Park for Broomall’s Dam at 3rd Street. According to the project engineers, 1.11 acres will become a construction zone, with approximately .64 acres of the park buried with earthfill for the new, larger dam.

The 1.1 Acre is a serene part of Glen Providence Park, which includes the Third Street entrance and waterfall, wetlands, a stretch of Broomall’s Run, elegant native flowers, the remnant of a historical footbridge, natural springs that were once a source of drinking water, and of course wildlife.

Plant & Wildlife

Through the year, we watched birds bathing and drinking in the springs, White-tailed deer taking refuge, intriguing insects such as the Ebony Jewelwing and an iridescent golden spider, Pickerel frogs, and endearing baby Wood frogs. We followed the progression of flowering native Wild Ginger, False Solomons Seal, white violets, Trout Lily, and Jack-in-the-Pulpit.  Native Spicebush and American Witch Hazel are abundant, along with ever-elegant ferns. Of course the intriguing Skunk Cabbage is prolific in the wetlands! The 1.1 Acre has 76 trees of 18 species including American Sycamore, Sassafras, American Hornbeam (aka Ironwood), and notably the lovely and Pennsylvania-rare Umbrella Magnolia.

Historical features

We located the source of the historical springs that were once a source of drinking water for the park, and that once fed the Eleanor Reed Butler waterfall by the pond. The masonry structures within the 1.1 Acre show the elegance of the park’s original structures built by the Works Progress Administration, and of the now-deteriorating 1883 dam. The remnants of the original footbridge, described in the 1941 Nature Guide as “an arched rustic bridge which commands a beautiful view of the Falls” that led to a fernery and the drinking spring, would be buried under the planned replacement dam.

Delineating the 1.1 Acre

Throughout the year, we regularly took photographs from the same vantage point near the dam overlooking the acre, giving us a series of 1.1 Acre Vista photos through the seasons. In late April, dozens of volunteers helped us create a human chain along the perimeter of the 1.1 Acre, to visualize its boundaries. While it was a week too late for a clear view due to freshly emerged foliage, you can get a sense of the scope of the construction area in some of those photos below.

We still don’t know the timing of the Third Street Project, but it will be incredibly sad to see the destruction of the 1.1 Acre. It’s a serene part of the park – we encourage you to visit it while it is intact!

Photos & more information

• Below is a sampling of photos from the year – click on any photo for a closer look.
• Our Introduction to the 1.1 Acre Project includes an explanation of the boundary, our tree map of the construction area, and historical photographs.
• You can read the installments of our 1.1 Acre Project photojournal, including the one about the historical springs.
• And you can scroll through all of the photos in one place on flickr.

To minimize destruction to the 1.1 Acre, Friends of Glen Providence Park supports dam removal, stream restoration and a local discussion of an environmentally-sensitive bridge between Media Borough and Upper Providence.

December 2020 update: We will be updating our website to enable our Flickr galleries to again display here. Until then, you can view our Year in the 1.1 Acre photos on Flickr. 

[AFG_gallery id=’13’]

Summer is fast approaching, it’s time to catch up with last summer’s photojournal of Glen Providence Park! It’s interesting to look back at what plants and wildlife are prevalent through the seasons and years. Here’s a sampling of what can be seen as the thermostat rises…

Last summer we had record rainfall, with the wettest July on record! It was second in total rainfall only to August 2011, which had brought us Hurricane Irene. Torrential rain in July both dislodged the pond intake, eliminating flow to the pond, and moved the boardwalk in the wetlands on the Shingle Mill Trail over several feet. We and County Parks were able to stabilize the pond intake (with repeated rock-moving!), but the boardwalk is still displaced.

All that rain had the plants growing fast – making the park especially lush, and keeping our Invasive Plant Removal crew busy! Blooms were a little late after a cool Spring – the Mountain Laurel along its eponymous trail was in bloom in the first week of June, while the native Rhododendron along the Ice House Trail bloomed later than usual, in the last week of June.

In summer, the pond is abuzz with life including damselflies, dragonflies, butterflies, and bees. Children (and adults!) love watching turtles and frogs at the pond, and fishing is a common activity. For those who look closely, there is much more to discover in the park – including fungi, which are amazingly varied and can be surprisingly elegant.

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 Summer 1.1 Acre Project photos. You can compare our 2013 Summer to other years in my photojournals for June and July 2012, and my first photojournal from August 2011.  

[AFG_gallery id=’12’]

As we visited the park’s 1.1 Acre construction area for Broomall’s Dam throughout the month of April, it was exciting to watch how quickly the woods and wetlands transformed! You can see in the first 1.1 Acre vista photo below that the trees were almost bare on April 3, and Skunk Cabbage leaves were just emerging in the wetlands. By the end of the month, the acre was lush and green, and the views across the valley were blocked until Fall.

Before the rapidly emerging foliage and Skunk Cabbage obscured the way, we traced the spring-fed streams to their source by the historical drinking spring. When Media was founded in 1850, and through the 1870’s, the springs feeding Broomall’s Run provided the drinking water for the Borough!

1945 Plan of Glen Providence Park

At least one of those springs continued to be a drinking source into the 1960’s- in Glen Providence Park along the border of the 1.1 Acre! This was an official supply of drinking water for the park, as described in Chester Times articles and marked on this 1945 map. The 1941 Nature Guide to Glen Providence Park also describes the drinking spring and its  surrounding wildflowers and fernery. While the area around the spring has largely overgrown, wildflowers and ferns remain!

Our photos below show the remnants of a masonry wall by the spring, and what appear to be two spring sources that merge into one stream. One of those sources is within the 1.1 Acre, and the other is just outside of the 1.1 Acre. It is sad that these historical springs will be destroyed or impacted by the Broomall’s Dam construction area.

Throughout the 1.1 Acre, there was plenty to appreciate- the morning sunlight often gives the wetlands a magical air. There are robust colonies of native May-apple and Trout Lily, with patches of False Solomon’s Seal, Wild Ginger, and the dreaded Poison Ivy– which is actually native and beneficial to birds! There are two Umbrella Magnolias, which we did not catch in full bloom. Wildlife visitors that we managed to photograph were a White-tailed Deer and Carolina Wren. 

For an explanation of the 1.1 Acre and its boundary, see our introduction to the 1.1 Acre Project.

You can scroll through our chronological pictures below, and you can also view them with descriptions on our flickr page! You can see more pictures in our facebook albums and in our photojournal.

December 2020 update: We will be updating our website to enable our Flickr galleries to again display here. Until then, you can view our April 1.1 Acre photos on Flickr.

[AFG_gallery id=’7′]

It was another lovely bird walk in Glen Providence Park, led by cousins Al Guarente and Nick Crocetto of the Birding Club of Delaware County!  At least 15 people, novice and experienced birders alike, joined us on our Sunday morning hike. Despite the heat and humidity, we found 29 bird species, including a new one for our Park Bird List! Just as we were saying good-bye at the end of our walk, a Purple Martin flew over- bringing our species count to 101.  It’s a good thing Al and Nick were there to identify it!

We watched an Eastern Phoebe around the pond and frequently heard the comical call of the Eastern Wood Pewee. We had a nice view of the evasive Eastern Towhee, which is one of the species in Scroggie Valley that T. Chalkley Palmer wrote about in 1889. The towhee was then called the Chewink after one of the sounds it makes- it is nice to think about the continuity through the centuries of wildlife in the park!

In addition to the bird species listed below, other wildlife we saw or heard included Green frog, Painted turtle, Red-eared sliders, Northern water snake, White-tailed deer, and the lovely Ebony Jewelwing damselflies. You can read our complete bird list below!

Thank you so much to everyone who attended, to Tom Bush for entering our sightings on eBird, and of course to Al Guarente and Nick Crocetto for leading our walk- and finding species #101!
 

Late Spring Bird Walk eBird list:
June 2, 2013

Canada Goose -11
Black Vulture – 1
Turkey Vulture – 1
Mourning Dove – 4
Chimney Swift – 2
Red-bellied Woodpecker – 4
Downy Woodpecker -3
Hairy Woodpecker – 1
Northern Flicker – 2
Eastern Wood-Pewee – 2
Eastern Phoebe – 6 (5 adults and 1 juvenile)
Red-eyed Vireo – 3
Blue Jay – 3
American Crow – 2
Fish Crow – 1 (flyover)
Purple Martin – 1 (flyover)
Tufted Titmouse – 2
White-breasted Nuthatch -2 (heard)
House Wren – 3
Carolina Wren – 6
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher – 2 (heard calling)
American Robin – 3
Gray Catbird – 5
European Starling – 1
Eastern Towhee – 4
Song Sparrow – 5
Northern Cardinal – 2
Common Grackle – 1
Baltimore Oriole – 2

We didn’t get any substantial snowfall in Glen Providence Park this winter, but we did get several dustings and light coverings- enough for some friendly snowmen to emerge in the park, and for a few days of sledding!  And of course the woods look just magical with a coating of snow.  Add winter lighting and you have some beautiful hikes….

We headed out in the cold for our second year participating in the Christmas Bird Count in December, and our Winter Tree Identification in January.  We even ventured out in the rain for our Naturalist Walk & Talk in February, and the woods were lovely!  The intrepid Media Providence Friends School students continued to use the park as an outdoor classroom for science, service learning, and even for Mindfulness exercises!

The weather was erratic with January’s temperatures all over the map- ranging from a frigid 12 degrees to a balmy 68!  But with reptiles and amphibians in hibernation, there are birds and mammals to see.  One particularly fun bird to watch (if you can spot it despite its camouflage!) is the adorable Brown Creeper: it spirals its way up a tree eating bark insects, then virtually drops to the base of the tree to start up again.   To see what birds to expect in winter, see our winter bird sightings on eBird.

Valentine’s Day seemed like the tipping point for winter, with a beautiful coating of fresh snow rapidly melting- and we noticed buds on American Beech and Silver Maple.  After that, wildlife activity started picking up- with a number of birds singing in the park one late February morning, despite it being 26 degrees and breezy!   We saw an American Crow gathering twigs for a nest, and we had a report of a Muskrat swimming in the pond under the ice, the same week we were finding possible muskrat tracks along Broomall’s Run.

Winter is a great time to admire the structure of trees, and there are plants that are interesting year-round, like the Smooth Alder on the pond’s island with its catkins and cone-like fruit, elegant Mountain Laurel on the eastern hill, and mosses on the forest floor.  We started the 1.1 Acre Project to study and document the species in the construction area for the 3rd Street Dam- so that will be a parallel photojournal through the year!

You can scroll through our pictures below, and you can also view them with descriptions on our brand-new flickr page!  You can see more pictures in our facebook albums and in our photojournal.

[AFG_gallery id=’2′]

It was a beautiful, crisp, sunny winter morning for our second year participating in the Christmas Bird Count in Glen Providence Park.  Our 8:30 start was after that of some dog walkers, so our four-legged friends may have scared off some birds- we counted a total of 80 birds of 15 species.  While it was our second year, it was the 113th year for the CBC– the world’s longest-running Citizen Science survey!

The frost and lighting were absolutely lovely, and it was a peaceful way to spend a December morning.  In keeping with the season, we saw evergreen Christmas fern and American Holly.  And we watched two White-tailed bucks as they made their way through the undergrowth and up the hill- they are always so much more impressive seen while hiking in the woods than from a car!  Other enchanting sights included a shower of “petals” fluttering down on us from the fruit of a Tuliptree high above, the morning light illuminating a pine tree, the curious gnarled bark of a tree, and some moss peaking out from some frosted leaves – there is always something to see in the park!

As for the birds, we enjoyed watching two pairs of Mallards swimming in the pond, three species of woodpecker, and more of the usual winter suspects (but oddly no sparrows!).  They are all charming to see. Our complete list is below- next year we will set an earlier start time for our Christmas Bird Count!

Click on any photo below for a closer look, or scroll through the photos for a virtual tour.  For more bird photos, visit our Wildlife Album on Facebook.

Here is our official Christmas Bird Count list for Saturday, December 15, 2012:

Mallard 36
Mourning Dove 3
Belted Kingfisher 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker 4
Downy Woodpecker 2
Northern Flicker 3
Blue Jay 4
American Crow 2
Carolina Chickadee 6
Tufted Titmouse 5
White-breasted Nuthatch 4
Carolina Wren 2
Northern Mockingbird 1
Dark-eyed Junco 2
Northern Cardinal 5

You can compare it to the list from our 2011 Christmas Bird Count!

Every season is beautiful in Glen Providence Park– but Fall is just magical!  After our first year of monthly photojournals, we will continue with quarterly ones- following meteorological seasons, so our Fall photojournal is September through November.  We continue to work on identifying species of all kinds, with generous help from experts and from our knowledgeable facebook fans and nature walk guides!

At our August Nature Walk, Tom Reeves taught us about two intriguing species that are dependent on the American Beech (which is so abundant along the eastern hill), both of which we saw a lot of in the Fall!  The parasitic but harmless Beech-drop, Epifagus americana, grows in the roots of beeches and it blooms in the fall- and it is Tom’s favorite plant!  Beech blight aphids are fluffy little insects that remind us of Seuss’ truffula trees– they feed on the sap of the beech, and they are hysterical to watch.  There are even videos on YouTube– the Beech blight aphids look like they are dancing!   If you noticed gray spots on the ground that looked like ash, that is mold that grows under colonies of the aphids.

9/28 Sawfly larvae on River Birch

Amphibians and reptiles could still be found in October- we were excited to spot our first Wood Frog in the park!  It breeds in vernal pools- you can hear its call here.   Of course we frequently see the Common Garter Snake, but it was interesting to get a good look at how deeply their tongues were forked!  According to wikipedia, a forked tongue allows reptiles to sense the direction of a smell.

Insect indentifications included Sawfly larvae on one of the River Birches we planted- as identified by BAMONA, Butterflies and Moths of North America.  They looked like a buffet for birds!  Facebook fans identified a very fuzzy caterpillar we spotted by the pond as a Lined Ruby Tiger Moth, Phragmatobia lineata.

10/5 Ephemeral mushroom “flowers”

Another facebook fan identified both the black mushroom “Earth tongue”, and some delicate, ephemeral white mushrooms that look like flowers– likely a species of marasmius.

For several weeks you could find the fruit of the intriguing native Osage orange, Maclura pomifera, on the ground along the Sledding Hill- this odd-looking fruit measures about 5″ across, and can weigh over 1 pound! According to wikipedia, the fruit was once used to repel spiders by placing one under the bed, and one study found its extract elemol to be as effective a mosquito repellant as DEET!

10/25 White-tailed doe & fawn

Like last year, we began to see more White-tailed deer in the fall. I spotted this doe and fawn the day that several deer in the park were being oddly tame- I came across one napping on the Shingle Mill Trail, and after initially bounding off, each deer stood watching me from afar- and eventually they actually ignored me as I hiked around the park.

We were incredibly lucky that there was not more damage to Glen Providence Park from Hurricane Sandy just before Halloween- several trees fell and the pond level was very high, but the erosion and damage was nothing like that from Hurricane Irene in 2011.

As the leaves fell, the beauty of the park’s topography  was revealed.  Now it just needs a covering of snow….

Click on any photo for a closer look, and you can scroll through the photos for a virtual tour.   And remember we’re always adding  to the photo albums on facebook!

For one year, we kept a monthly photojournal of Glen Providence Park– walking through the park a few times a week looking for wildlife and changing plantlife.  We regularly posted photographs on facebook, and compiled them here in our photojournal.  We wanted to document what is in Glen Providence Park, and share all these discoveries with others!

It was a wonderful way to observe and learn about the park’s array of plants, fungi and wildlife. Having completed a year, we will transition to a more manageable seasonal photojournal. Here’s an overview of what we observed, with links to each month’s photojournal!

A Year in Pictures: August 2011 – July 2012

August – Turtles on fallen Oak after Hurricane Irene

Our photo-exploration started out in August with an abundance of wildlife- with frogs, snakes, and so many turtles!  A Green Heron was frequently seen fishing at the pond.  Hurricane Irene’s damage changed the landscape, including felling a large oak, which was enjoyed by the resident turtle colony until the tree was removed!

In September we discovered the Common Muskrat living in the pond, and so many fungi throughout the park! We spotted the lovely Wood Thrush before it left for the winter, and a pair of Great Blue Heron visited the pond.

Of course the foliage in October was spectacular, and there were so many bird species, it prompted us to document all of our sightings (and historical sightings) on eBird… creating a Park Bird List!

I discovered that November is possibly my favorite month in the park, with the more muted beauty of late fall foliage, and the structure of the trees and landscape visible.  I was startled by a Sharp-shinned Hawk, and snapped my first White-tailed Deer photograph in the park.  The blooming American Witch Hazel and a positively luminous dragonfly added to the enchantment!

With all the leaves down in December, we discovered more old structures in the park, including an original drinking well with a hand pump.  Variations of fog and ice gave the park a new look with every visit.

Red Fox & Ostrich Fern

January was magical with an encounter with a Red Fox, and I learned to pay attention to American Crows: their raucous calls led me to a magnificent Great Horned Owl they were pestering, and I watched them chase a Red-tailed Hawk. We learned how remarkable the park’s abundant Skunk Cabbage is as it melted its way through the frozen ground.

February brought a pair of Pileated Woodpeckers, the tiny flowers of the Skunk Cabbage, and early buds on trees including the Silver Maple.

In March, the pond exploded with sound on first day of spring, as the comical American Toads started their startlingly loud mating call.  And with the warming weather the snakes and turtles emerged, along with the lovely ephemeral Bloodroot!

April was magnificent with so many flowering trees, and the ever-entertaining Common Muskrat re-emerged at the pond.  And there were oodles of American Toad tadpoles!

Right on cue on the first of May we heard the ethereal song of the Wood Thrush, returned from wintering in Central America- and later that month we saw it on its nest! Glen Providence Park was in bloom with elegant Waterlilies in the pond, Mountain Laurel on the eastern hill, and Jack in the Pulpit in the woods.

June brought gorgeous iridescent damselflies, dragonflies, and more muskrat antics.  The abundance of birds included a striking Scarlet Tanager, an especially blue Great Blue Heron, an endearing juvenile Eastern Phoebe, and a Canada Goose family.

In July we wound up our monthly photojournals with butterflies, fungi, a pair of White-tailed Deer, a Green Frog by the pond’s island, and a Skipper on the Echinacea in bloom from our Earth Day Plantings!

There is a photo for each month below, and you can click on any month above to see all of its photographs.  Enjoy the park- you just never know what you will see!