This Week At Nixon Park 2025
"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds" from "Self-Reliance" - Ralph Waldo Emerson Trying to publish a weekly review of what I've seen at the park doesn't seem to work as well as it once did. Let's try
This Week At Nixon Park 2025
According to Penn State Extension there are 437 species of native bees in Pennsylvania. I've observed 32 different species at Anson B. Nixon Park, and I imagine there are many I have not yet seen. These native bees are an important indicator of a healthy environment, and certainly
This Week At Nixon Park 2025
Partridge pea flower, New York Ironweed with Monarch, Spearmint, Elderberries, Wild Leek, Black Snakeroot, Partridge Pea, Joe Pye Weed
This Week At Nixon Park 2025
Relentless sweltering sun, glowering storm clouds, heavy curtains of rain, gentle perfumes and shocking odors; every corner green and humming. Summer in all its intensity holds nothing back.
This Week At Nixon Park 2025
The long, hot, humid days have and frequent rain make for a vibrant green July. As summer flowers proliferate so do the bees and wasps. Dragonfly and damselfly season is in high gear supplying a source of food for many birds. This week the Kingbird nestlings flexed their wings, shook
This Week At Nixon Park 2025
It was a week for Kingbirds (more about Tyrant Flycatchers). Kingbirds aggressively defend their territories, even against the largest bird they are likely to run across at the park, the Great Blue Heron. I saw the chase pictured above a couple of times this week. I've been watching
This Week At Nixon Park 2025
This week I visited the meadow area that has grown to cover the old landfill site. Barn Swallows and Tree Swallows were hawking for insects, and there's a very active and vocal nesting community of Red-winged Blackbirds who, having spotted me at some distance, were not interested in
This Week At Nixon Park 2025
A hot week. Enough said about that. I like to walk slowly through the beech grove when the weather is hot (truth be told I walk slowly everywhere when the weather is hot). The canopy of trees shades the trail almost completely, and the undergrowth is lush, cool and green.
This Week At Nixon Park 2025
Another week of rain and unseasonably cool temperatures topped off by a strong storm with around an inch and a quarter of rain and 50 MPH wind gusts. When they swept through the park those winds felled a few trees and many branches.
This Week At Nixon Park 2025
A warmer week than last. As the high temperatures reach the eighties for a couple of days in a row dragonfly nymphs are finally beginning to emerge after a cold, wet spring.
This Week At Nixon Park 2025
Sadly it appears that a predator of some description has snatched the eggs out of the Green heron nest (last week's look at the nest and eggs). I checked on the nest a number of times this week and did not see the Heron sitting, nor the eggs.
This Week At Nixon Park 2025
After a long bleak winter of waiting, traversing vast migrations, and surviving daunting probabilities, the late May parade of life carries on despite unseasonable cold and wet. This week it's fledglings, nests full of eggs, the quiet work of incubation, feeding the nestlings, tiny turtles, fox kits, and