Friday, November 20, 2020
Sunny and 60 degrees today!
Willisbrook Preserve, in Willistown Township, has woods and meadows, and includes the Sugartown Serpentine Barrens, a rare ecosystem.
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You must park at Serpentine Preserve
at 143 Line Road and take the blue trail
into Willisbrook Preserve |
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Tamiko with a larger nesting box, for
American Kestrels or Eastern Screech Owls (KSS) |
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| Large hornet nest (KSS) |
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| Looks like Pennisetum alopecuroides/Fountain Grass (KSS) |
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Uh, oh, it's archery deer hunting season;
fortunately hunters are out closer to dawn and dusk |
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Hmm, a Buddhist fairy lives here (KSS)
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| Wilting Trametes versicolor/Turkey Tail? |
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The photo makes him look huge, but is is a Sialia sialis/
Eastern Bluebird; lots of birds today but the only other
positively identified bird was the Turdus migratorius/Robin (KSS) |
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Nice sign, but no cattails in sight
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Shades of green moss and/or lichens (KSS)
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| Well-marked lollipop trails |
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| Trails are shared with horses, but they must ford the stream! |
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| Crossing Serpentine Run |
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Long line of netless soccer goals at the fields of the
Greater Chester Valley Soccer Association (KSS) |
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This large nesting box is on a live tree
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Typha sp/Cattails in the wetlands area
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Odd row of mixed conifers along the
connecting corridor between two large parcels |
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| Smilax sp/Greenbrier berries (KSS) |
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Major greenbrier thickets
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| See? Horses cannot use the bridges! |
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Sugartown Serpentine Barrens
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A serpentine barrens contain no woody species but a very sparse herbaceous cover of xeromorphic annuals and perennials. Thin soil sits on a base of serpentinite rock which includes high concentrations of heavy metals and lacks essential nutrients for most plant life. Yet Sugartown Serpentine Barrens is biologically diverse with 14 known endangered plant species that have adapted to this soil.
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