WILLISTOWN CONSERVATION TRUST

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
DONATE
  • About
    • HOW WE WORK
    • WHERE WE WORK
    • OUR STAFF AND TRUSTEES
    • JOBS & INTERNSHIPS
    • VOLUNTEER
    • RUSHTON CONSERVATION CENTER
    • STRATEGIC PLAN
    • DIVERSITY, EQUITY & INCLUSION STATEMENT
    • FAQs
  • LATEST
    • BLOG
    • IN THE NEWS
    • PUBLICATIONS
    • PHOTOS
  • PROGRAMS
    • BIRD CONSERVATION
    • COMMUNITY FARM
    • EDUCATION
    • LAND PROTECTION
    • STEWARDSHIP
    • WATERSHED PROTECTION
  • NATURE PRESERVES
    • ASHBRIDGE PRESERVE
    • HARTMAN MEADOW
    • KESTREL HILL PRESERVE
    • KIRKWOOD PRESERVE
    • RUSHTON WOODS PRESERVE
  • EVENTS
    • EVENT CALENDAR
    • BARNS & BBQ
    • RUN-A-MUCK
    • WILDFLOWER WEEK
    • ECOCENTRIC EXPERIENCE
    • RUSHTON NATURE KEEPERS (RNK)
    • ACCESS Program
  • Support
    • WAYS TO GIVE
    • SPONSOR THE TRUST
    • CORPORATE PARTNERSHIP PROGRAM
    • JOIN THE SYCAMORE SOCIETY
    • LEGACY SOCIETY & PLANNED GIVING
    • DELCO Gives 2025
  • CAMPAIGN FOR KESTREL HILL PRESERVE

Warblers Comin' in Hot

September 4, 2018 By Blake Goll

Magnolia Warbler banded at Rushton today. Photo by Blake Goll/Staff

The Rushton banding crew was back at it this morning, collecting as much data as possible before the temperature exceeded the safe limit of 78 degrees.  Although it is important  to collect an accurate census of the  migratory birds using our protected open space here in Willistown, it is even more important to us to keep each individual bird as comfortable and healthy as possible.  Soon autumn will reign over summer, and the mornings will be crisp and cool— just what a fully feathered athlete prefers.
Even though we closed the nets over an hour early, we still caught 33 birds of thirteen species.  It was a quality assortment containing little gems like the Magnolia Warbler pictured above, which is making its first journey from the boreal forest of northern climes to the mangrove forests of the tropics.

American Redstart banded at Rushton today. Photo by Blake Goll/Staff
American Redstart banded at Rushton today.  Notice the rictal bristles around the bill. Photo by Blake Goll/Staff.  

Other interesting species included a scrappy young Eastern Towhee, one of the elusive Connecticut Warblers that elicit envy from listers (those nutty birders who keep life lists of species seen),  a Canada Warbler, and a show-stopping adult male American Redstart.  Redstarts flash their bright tails to startle insects out from hiding; the rictal bristles, specialized feathers around the bill, may also assist in snagging insects by helping the bird sense its orientation.  The bristles do not actually capture insects, but are an essential sensory structure like a cat’s whiskers —if I dare compare cats to birds.
There’s a lot going on in the woods,
Blake

Young Wood Thrush banded at Rushton today.  Notice the juvenal speckled feathers on its head.  The speckled feathers on its breast are not indicative of age.  Photo by Blake Goll/Staff.

 

Filed Under: Bird Banding, Bird ecology, migration Tagged With: American Redstart, Bird banding, fall songbird migration, magnolia warbler, Rushton Woods Preserve, wood thrush

If Black-throated Blues are Here, Fall is Near

August 30, 2018 By Blake Goll

Black-throated Blue Warbler banded at Rushton Woods Preserve this spring.  Photo by Blake Goll/Staff

Even though the autumn equinox has not yet occurred and you’re still wistfully packing your bags for one last summer fling at the beach this weekend, billions of songbirds have started the silent nocturnal procession south.  Though we are not lucky enough to be graced by the steely gray tuxedos of the dapper Black-throated Blue Warbler during their nuptial season, they are one of the first warblers to appear at Rushton during fall migration.  After nesting in higher elevations of mixed hardwood and evergreen forests — the kind with yellow birch towering over thick tangles of mountain laurel and rhodedendron— they often gravitate toward early successional shrubby areas with their “teenage” offspring.  Consequently, these young birds probably recognize these types of shrubby habitats as safe havens during their first migration.
Rushton got shrub. The hedgerows of Rushton where we operate fourteen mist nets  are largely composed of early successional habitat.  Maybe that’s why we often get the younger, what we call Second Year or Hatch Year, Black-throated Blues.  These have greenish edging on some of the feathers and feather coverts as compared to the entirely blue edged adults.  Compare the two photos below of the older male we caught in spring and the younger male we caught this morning.  Can you tell the difference?  If not, you would not make a good female songbird; you must know when to swipe left on a sub-par mate by looks alone.  Yes, the natural world is a place of unforgiving vanity.

Young (Hatch Year) Black-throated Blue Warbler banded at Rushton today (8/30/18). Photo by Blake Goll/Staff
Adult (After Second Year) Black-throated Blue Warbler banded at Rushton in May 2018. Photo by Blake Goll/Staff

On this steamy opening day of our fall banding season, we also blinged out, skulled, and aged many young Gray Catbirds, Wood Thrush, Common Yellowthroats, American Robins, and a lovely American Goldfinch.  We watched the mercury closely and closed early to keep our birds cool and safe.  Still our total was 15 new birds of 7 species.

Ageing a Gray Catbird today (8/30) at Rushton. Photo by Blake Goll/Staff
Alison skulling a Gray Catbird today. In other words, she is looking through the transparent skin under the feathers to determine the level of ossification of the skull, which corresponds to age. Photo by Blake Goll/Staff
Ageing a Wood Thrush today at Rushton. Photo by Blake Goll/Staff

Join the fun Tuesday and Thursday mornings at Rushton Woods Preserve now until November 1 from sunrise until about 11 am.
There’s a lot going on in the woods,
Blake
 

Filed Under: Bird Banding, Bird ecology, migration Tagged With: Bird banding, Black-throated Blue warbler, early successional shrub habitat, fall songbird migration, Rushton Farm

Spectacular Spring Secrets

March 24, 2016 By Blake Goll

American Robin in spring. Photo by Santosh Shanmuga
American Robin in spring on Eastern redbud. Photo by Santosh Shanmuga

The beauty of a cloudy spring day seems to stand out against the sunshine-filled days.  Calming gray skies provide depth and clarity to the vernal blush of the cherry blossoms and magnolias, and who needs rays of sunshine when the forsythia is ablaze in a yellow flourish of petals!  Romantic purples of rhododendrons and Eastern redbuds don’t need the solar spotlight; in fact these purple blossoms are pure witchcraft when set against a softer backdrop, sending onlookers into a zen-like trance of forgetting about the stress of spring schedules— and remembering to breathe.
Spring at the Trust is a busy time; we are often outside sharing the beauty of nature with the community and helping them to appreciate spectacular ephemeral shows, two of which you may be unaware.
There is a cryptic shorebird with feathers that disappear against a backdrop of russet leaves, large fleshy feet that leave telltale prints in the mud,  big alien-like eyes set oddly at the back of their head, and a long flexible bill that probes into the ground in search of earthworms.  It is the American Woodcock, otherwise know as the Timberdoodle or Bog Sucker!  This magnificent bird is a denizen of wet edges around deciduous forests rather than beaches like other shorebirds.

American Woodcock. Photo by Mike Rosengarten
American Woodcock. Photo by Mike Rosengarten
An American Woodcock banded at Rushton in April 2015. Photo by Blake Goll
An American Woodcock banded at Rushton in April 2015. Photo by Blake Goll
Ageing the American Woodcock. Photo by Blake Goll.
Ageing the American Woodcock. Photo by Blake Goll.

Although you wouldn’t expect aerial dynamics from such chunky little guys, the male woodcocks perform a spectacular display that can be seen in our area for a brief window of time in March.  We are lucky to have their favorite kind of wet open field habitat at two of the Willistown Conservation Trust’s Preserves: Ashbridge on Strasburg Road and Rushton Woods Preserve on Delchester Road.
At both sites, if you stand facing the open field and young woods habitat between 7:15 and 7:30 pm, you will eventually hear a very distinct, “peent!”  You’ll hear one.  Then a few minutes later you’ll hear another.  Be patient.  Soon you’ll hear others join in and then comes take off!  The males shoot straight up into the air in a wide spiral.  You may not see that part of the display, but you’ll hear it as their wings start to make a twittering sound from air passing over their stiff outer primary flight feathers.  The twittering gets intermittent when the bird is at 250-300 feet.  Look hard for a plump black figure cutting across the purple dusk sky.  Finally, you’ll hear deliberate chirping as he zigzags to the ground to plop down beside a female (who he hopes was watching).

Dusk at Rushton Farm (in summer). Photo by Blake Goll
Dusk at Rushton Farm (in summer). Photo by Blake Goll

I’m thankful that it is still possible to witness one of nature’s ancient ceremonies in the midst of a highly populated area just 20 miles west of Philadelphia. Conserved land provides the stage for these fascinating creatures.  But it’s not just open dance fields that these birds need.  They need young woodlands for nesting and wet shrublands that are often cleared around agricultural areas.  Since 1966 American Woodcocks have been declining, especially in the Mid-Atlantic, mainly because of habitat loss due to development.  These birds are also vulnerable to aerial spraying for forest pests because their forest floor foraging habits make them prone to pesticide accumulation.   At Rushton Farm we welcome these night partridges with plentiful habitat surrounding the farm fields and fat, juicy, pesticide-free worms!  And we can guarantee them that it will always be that way.
Go to Cornell’s All About Birds website to learn more, watch a video and hear the display sounds: www.allaboutbirds.org
Here’s a video of the “peent” call that is sure to crack you up!

Another of Spring’s clandestine evening ceremonies is the march of the mole salamanders to special seasonal wetlands called vernal pools.  A vernal pool can be anything from a ditch in a field to a forested pond.  One thing they all share in common is that they are temporary, filling with water during spring rains and drying up again later in the summer.  With no inlet or outlet, these pools create essential habitat in which frogs and salamanders can develop in the absence of fish and other predators.  However, with the transiency of these pools, the dependent amphibians must be highly adaptable.  They must wake quickly from their winter subterranean slumber during the first warm, rainy nights and make the voyage to vernal pools where they must mate and lay eggs fast enough to give the young time to develop before the pools disappear.

Wood Frogs in a vernal pool. Photo taken by Meta Poulos-Christaldi during our Jr. Birding Club vernal pool exploration March 2015.
Wood Frogs in a vernal pool at Ashbridge Preserve. Photo taken by Meta Poulos-Christaldi during our Jr. Birding Club vernal pool exploration March 2015.
Wood frog egg mass found at Ashbridge during this year's Jr. Birding Club vernal pool exploration. March 2016
Wood frog egg mass found at Ashbridge during this year’s Jr. Birding Club vernal pool exploration. March 2016.  Photo by Blake Goll.

Not all amphibians are obligated to vernal pools.  For example, spring peepers are tiny tree frogs that sound like birds calling from all kinds of wetlands in our area during spring.  However, they do often take advantage of vernal pools for the shelter and resources they offer during the breeding season.  Then they return to their life in the trees.  Wood frogs, on the other hand, are vernal pool indicator species and among the first to lay eggs, sometimes even before the last snowfall.  You can hear their quack-like mating calls from vernal pools very early in the spring.
Like wood frogs, mole salamanders also depend on vernal pools but are much more difficult to find.  These slimy dinosaurs don’t make a sound and spend most of their lives underground hunting worms, slugs, snails, spiders, crickets and little insect larvae that no one else can find.  Spotted salamanders are the most common and are a spectacle to see, reaching up to 9 inches in length!  The males emerge first and travel from upland woods to wooded vernal pools.  You can catch this spellbinding migration on warm, rainy nights early in spring by carefully cruising back roads with suitable habitat or exploring wet woods on foot.  If you miss the male migration, try another warm rainy night after that and you might catch the females migrating to the males’ territories.

Spotted Salamander. Photo by Blake Goll
Spotted Salamander. Photo by Blake Goll

Unfortunately, in the face of development in our area there aren’t many healthy populations of spotted salamanders left except around state parks and preserved lands.  A road is a deadly barrier to a salamander, and most of these vernal pool species attempt to return to the pool where they were born —even if a road has suddenly appeared along the route.  There are a few places where passionate volunteers help the salamanders and frogs cross busy roads during their annual migration events.

Wood frog crossing a road in March. Photo by Blake Goll
Wood frog crossing a road in March. Photo by Blake Goll

Vernal pools themselves are very sensitive.  They are threatened by habitat loss (PA has lost over half of its wetlands), climate change, pesticides and herbicide runoff.   Some residential areas now spray for mosquitoes, which decreases food for vernal pool predators.  Mowing and removing vegetation around ponds is another threat because it changes the water temperature, increases evaporation and eliminates egg laying sites. As if that weren’t enough, pathogens are also a serious threat to amphibian populations today.
To learn more about vernal pools visit this wonderful site: http://www.naturalheritage.state.pa.us
To report a sighting to help scientists document the status and distribution of amphibians and reptiles across our state or to learn more about these fascinating, under-appreciated animals visit: http://paherpsurvey.org/

A Jr. Birder shines her light on a Wood frog while surveying a vernal pool last March. Photo by Blake Goll
A Jr. Birder shines her light on a Wood frog while surveying a vernal pool last March. Photo by Blake Goll

Finally, since I can’t take you by the hand right now and show you the wonders of a vernal pool or the woods at night in the rain, I’ll leave you with a poetic account of my most recent experience with a spotted salamander (and a screech owl) last March.  Then click on the sound clip  to listen to a vernal pool chorus.  (The owl in my poem most likely would have eaten that salamander if I weren’t there! Amphibians are an important part of the food web.)

Spotted Salamander Revelry

By Blake Goll

I’m starry-eyed about this guy of my wildest dreams,

An old friend, who met me tonight in the spring mud

and warm rain,

In an instant fulfilling my hopes with his cold-blooded majesty

and turning my wistful solitude into heart pounding ecstasy,

On the glistening, leaf-carpeted forest path

near a magical vernal pool beneath the crescent moon

and the watchful silence of an owl’s secret stare.

I made an appointment with Nature tonight

and in return she bewitched my heart again

and fed my mind, body and salamander-loving soul.

[wpvideo 8Kfv8XiE]
 
 
 
 
 
 

Filed Under: Amphibian conservation, Bird ecology, Phenology Tagged With: American Woodcock, amphibians, Conservation, spotted salamander, spring peeper, vernal pool, wood frog

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • …
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5

CONTACT

925 Providence Road
Newtown Square, PA 19073
(610) 353-2562
land@wctrust.org

JOIN OUR MAILING LIST

Copyright © 2025 · WCTRUST.ORG