Saturday, April 20, 2024
Took advantage of being in the neighborhood to drop off hazardous waste at Delaware County Emergency Training Center in Sharon Hill, to go to the
John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum (est 1972).
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Path to the Visitor Center |
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Corten steel sculpture (unattributed) |
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John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center (2001, by Susan Maxman & Partners) is considered Philadelphia's first green building and has geothermal heating and cooling |
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Great Blue Heron sculpture was created with plastic litter |
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Started on the Big Boardwalk Loop Trail, with the Big Boardwalk in view ahead (plus a swan) |
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Kent & Brynne (and Sloane) on the Big Boardwalk that crosses the emergent wetland, where the US Fish & Wildlife Service can manage water levels; adjusting the water levels throughout the seasons maximizes the benefits for migrating birds, invertebrates, and plant communities; either lowered to expose mud flats that provide for feeding and resting areas during shorebird migration or raised during waterfowl migration for dabbling and diving ducks |
This area is not being restored, rather is being managed to benefit wildlife in the refuge's unique location along the Atlantic Flyway.
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Tachycineta bicolor/Tree Swallows use the nesting boxes in the wetland |
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Fishing spot on Darby Creek |
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After leaving the Big Boardwalk, we followed the Wetland Loop Trail around the emergent wetland |
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What is this? |
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A bench with the seat back decorated with bundles of the invasive Phragmites australis/ Common Reed that were collected by volunteers |
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The so-called Observation Tower |
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Observation Tower view of the emergent wetland |
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We saw thousands of sun-basking turtles; this one is close enough to photograph, and seems to have the carapace of Pseudemys rubriventris/Red-bellied Turtle |
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The Wetland Loop Trail |
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A side trip to the Tinicum Marsh Boardwalk; Tinicum Marsh is a freshwater intertidal marsh |
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Hmm, an old car tire |
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Tinicum Marsh at a higher tide |
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Painted structure (a blind?) on the emergent wetland |
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The invasive Phragmites autralis |
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There are turtles upon turtles out there! (KSS) |
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Not a haystack; perhaps a rotting tree with collapsed branches covered with invasive vines |
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Another fishing spot; this one on Tinicum Marsh; fishing seemed to be discouraged on the emergent wetland, yet many senior folks who arrived on electric scooters of many sorts were fishing the wetland
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The tidal side of the Wetland Loop Trail; vernal ponds? |
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Now we were parallel to I-95 and the SEPTA Airport Line |
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And a pipeline crossed our path |
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On Frog Pond Trail, Kent spotted this 1-1/2" turtle |
I think Frog Pond overflowed Frog Pond Trail, since we could only travel the loop portion and not follow it to another intersection with the Wetland Loop Trail.
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