Trout Lily (Erythronium americanum)
With trees just beginning to bud, sunlight has been able to penetrate to the forest floor, providing light for many early spring wildflowers to bloom. One such wildflower that can be seen during this time of the year is the Trout lily (Erythronium americanum). These little lilies are easily recognized by their mottled leaves, which gives the flower their name as the markings on the leaves look like the markings of brook trout, and their bright yellow flowers. Interestingly, these flowers form colonies that can completely coat a forest floor and the colonies themselves may be hundreds of...
Read MoreCould it Be That Time Already?!
Our winter weather has been getting stranger by the day! This week we are going to see daytime temperatures in the mid 60’s and overnight temps in the low 40’s and 50’s with possible rain. And you know what that could mean right? Amphibians could potentially begin their migrations to their vernal breeding pools within the next few days! This time last year we were still buried in snow and were still experiencing some of the winds and weather from the “polar vortex.” Due to the extreme cold last year, it wasn’t until early April when we saw spotted...
Read MoreMarch Sunset
This March sunset greeted me with some heat last night featuring stunning colors filling the western horizon…come on, how can you not want to get outdoors and love these lengthening days?! Be sure to get some fresh air this weekend. Scott Kruitbosch Conservation & Outreach Coordinator
Read MoreInvasive Species Management Webinar
Today, Wednesday February 24 at 6pm we will be showing the Invasive Species Management: Picking battles large enough to matter and small enough to win webinar by Norris Muth of Juniata College. Norris will be calling in for the discussion portion of the webinar to answer questions from the audience. Webinar description: It is a safe bet that every parcel of privately owned forest land in Pennsylvania has multiple invasive species. With these invasive species posing more problems than can possibly all be solved at once, how can landowners decide when and how to act? We will discuss some ways...
Read MoreBrown Creeper
Brown Creepers must be the winner in the category of “most calm, friendly and tame birds that are yet the most difficult to get a good photo of” because they stay glued to the tree bark and rarely stop moving, spiraling up and down the trunk. They examine every crevice they can for any small insects or spiders, locking those big feet on the bark and staying steady with their long tail, using that large curved bill to snag their snack. I have plenty of semi-blurry photos of the species and even more that are too dark or obstructed. Today I took out my camera to photograph a few of...
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