John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge (4/20/2024)

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).

Path to the Visitor Center

Corten steel sculpture (unattributed)

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

Great Blue Heron sculpture was
created with plastic litter

Started on the Big Boardwalk Loop Trail,
with the Big Boardwalk in view ahead (plus a swan)

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.

Tachycineta bicolor/Tree Swallows
use the nesting boxes in the wetland

Fishing spot on Darby Creek

After leaving the Big Boardwalk, we followed the
Wetland Loop Trail around the emergent wetland

What is this?

A bench with the seat back decorated with
bundles of the invasive Phragmites australis/
Common Reed that were collected by volunteers

The so-called Observation Tower

Observation Tower view of the emergent wetland

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

The Wetland Loop Trail

A side trip to the Tinicum Marsh Boardwalk;
Tinicum Marsh is a freshwater intertidal marsh

Hmm, an old car tire

Tinicum Marsh at a higher tide

Painted structure (a blind?) on the emergent wetland

The invasive Phragmites autralis

There are turtles upon turtles out there! (KSS)

Not a haystack; perhaps a rotting tree with
collapsed branches covered with invasive vines

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

The tidal side of the Wetland Loop Trail; vernal ponds?

Now we were parallel to I-95 and the SEPTA Airport Line

And a pipeline crossed our path

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.