Sechler Run is an agriculturally impaired stream that runs along the front of Geisinger Outpatient Surgery Woodbine (OSW). You may have noticed the stream at the intersetion of Woodbine Lane and Route 11 just East of Danville Borough.

Geisinger followed the lead of the previous owner of the property and maintained the area as manicured lawn to welcome staff, patients, and visitors. When the  Northcentral Stream Partnership approached Geisinger about considering a project to improve the stream’s water quality, Geisinger’s facilities department was willing to listen and consider a change.

The Northcentral Stream Partnership explained the steep, eroding streambanks were adding sediment to the stream system, and coating the streambed. The stream had incised over the years and its inability to spread out and slowdown during high water events was adding to the problem. The partnership also explained thermal impacts from the stream being in an open lawn instead of having more natural vegetation that would provide shade for the stream and habitat for birds, pollinators, as well as reptiles and amphibians.

In a “normal” year completing this work would be impressive. During a pandemic it is even more so. We were originally slated for the stream work to begin on May 11, 2020 and wrap-up on May 22, 2020. This would have allowed for the buffer to be planted the week of May 25, 2020 and everything completed before June (buffer plantings typically do not happen from June through mid-September due to concerns about dry weather).  However,  the Governor issued an emergency declaration on March 16, 2020 and our partners at the PA Fish and Boat Commission were re-assigned to hatcheries to get the spring trout stocking done. Our partners at PA DEP and the Montour Conservation District were working from home, and could not conduct field work. The normal pre-project preparations were put on hold.

The partners advocated to their superiors and helped problem solve when issues were identified. 

The project was given the go-ahead to proceed with new, special regulations in place to mitigate possible COVID-19 exposure. We began construction on May 18, 2020, wrapped up on May 29, 2020 and were planting trees on June 1, 2020. While things were a week behind schedule, we were happy to get the project completed and “test” for the new Covid restrictions.

Today is World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD)! WMBD celebrates and brings attention to one of the most important and spectacular events in the Americas – bird migration. Each year, hundreds of bird species migrate between their nesting habitats in North America and wintering grounds in Latin America, Mexico, and the Caribbean.

This year’s conservation campaign, “Birds connect our world,” highlights the tracking technologies that researchers use to learn about migratory routes, examines the hazards birds face during their journeys, and implements conservation actions to help migratory birds along the way. Click here to learn more about WMBD.

To help celebrate WMBD here in northcentral Pennsylvania, ecologist and Northcentral Pennsylvania Conservancy member, Bob Ross, shares some insight on three species that both migrate through Pennsylvania annually and breed in Pennsylvania as well. All three are illustrated in this article with photos taken by Bob from his personal gallery.  See if you can spot them this season!

Celebrating World Migratory Bird Day
By: Bob Ross

First the Hooded Warbler, a true neotropical migrant, which refers to birds that spend winters in the neotropics (Central and South America) but migrate long distances north in spring to breed in temperate or arctic North America, returning to the tropics by fall.  This forest songbird prefers mature extensive forests with dense understory, often near forest roads or other gaps in the forest cover.  It nests in shrubs typically not far from the ground.  It is an insectivore and aracnid feeder and feeds by hawking, hovering, and gleaning prey from foliage.  It plays an important role in forest health by helping to control damaging caterpillars on trees and shrubs.  Often heard before seen, this songbird is worth learning its song then getting into the forest to find.  Its territories are found throughout central Pennsylvania woodlands.

Another summer beauty that enriches our lives with song and color is the Indigo Bunting.  This songbird is also a neotropical migrant with distribution similar to the Hooded Warbler, but ranges further west into the Great Plains and some areas of the mountain West.  It is a seed and berry feeder primarily, often stopping at yard feeders to “carb-up” before reaching its breeding grounds.  It is more generalist in breeding habitat, though, than the warbler, preferring brushy or abandoned agricultural fields to forage in.  But it sings atop tall trees along roadsides and fields all summer long and all day long where we can hear him easily and find him with some effort (watch out you don’t get “warbler neck” looking up so much!).  Like all songbirds, it feeds it young insects and other invertebrates, gleaned from grasses, shrubs, and trees.  Find this bird easily by driving along gravel or farmland roads with wooded patches, or by bicycle or foot along rail or other foot trails.

Finally a true frugivore native to Pennsylvania and throughout sub-arctic North America, the Cedar Waxwing.  It winters south to Central America then migrates north to breed widely across the continent, mostly dropping south of Canada for the winter.  It is nomadic, following ripening fruit shrubs and trees, often breeding late in summer in response to this food source wherever it might be.  It also feeds its young insects, however, and is often seen sallying out over rivers such as Pine Creek in August to capture them above water, sometimes in large groups.  Check out the tree cover the pair of waxwings is using in the photo: a flowering honey locust, soon to be seen and smelled in northcentral Pennsylvania!

Bird migration is already underway in Pennsylvania, so get out there into the woods, hills, and dales to watch it.  Whether waterfowl, raptors, or songbirds, you can enjoy migratory birds and their connection to the rest of the world this time of year, every year!

Bob Ross was the lead research ecologist at the Northern Appalachian Research Laboratory near Wellsboro before retiring in 2007.  He spends winters in the southern California desert and recently published the book Birds of the Whitewater River, Southern California (www.birdsofwhitewaterriver.com).

By: Susan Sprout

Find out what’s underfoot with NPC member and environmental educator, Susan Sprout! Catch up on past issues of Underfoot: Introduction & Bloodroot, Trout Lily & Coltsfoot.

Blue Cohosh
As you walk through the moist richness of spring woods, you may notice plants of a totally different hue standing out from all of the various greens. If the stems, leaves, and flowers are a dark bluish-purple color, the plants are Blue Cohosh.

This plant is tri-ternate and is organized in groups of threes. Its first leaf of the season has a stem that separates into three branches, each dividing into three parts and having three leaflets. The flowers are divided into six parts with yellow nectar glands in the center to entice early bees for pollination. Deep blue seeds appear later. They look like blueberries, but are not considered edible. This native plant is a member of the Barberry Family, Berberidaceae, and was sought out by many different Native American tribes for its medicinal root which they harvested in the fall.

Dutchman’s Breeches
Above a puddle of grayish-green, deeply-cut, and feathery basal leaves, you may see an ersatz clothesline stem of creamy white flowers that appear like pairs of pantaloons hung up to dry. This unique plant of the Poppy Family, Papaveraceae, is Dutchman’s Breeches. Common names come into popular usage because they reflect the looks, use, or habitat of a plant. This one certainly fits! 

Its fragrant two-spurred flowers are pollinated by bumblebees whose proboscis unlike that of a honeybee is long enough to reach the nectar. Years ago I took one plant growing near a friend’s cabin and planted it under our big maple. Its progeny now carpet that area in
early spring.

Susan Sprout is a retired school teacher who continued teaching after retirement at Montour Preserve helping teachers of  handicapped students with nature walks, at the National Shell Museum as a curator of the fossil collection, and as teacher of Shell Studies at the local school on Sanibel Island. Based on her love and study of plants, she does living history presentations of medicinal plants used by Native Americans, colonial immigrants, and people living during the Civil War. Both she and her husband, Richard, serve as cannoneers  with Thompson’s Independent Battery C PA Light Artillery.  Sue has served on the Northcentral Pennsylvania Conservancy board in the past. The Sprouts have been Conservancy members for 29 years.

By: Susan Sprout

We hope you enjoy this 2nd installment of Underfoot, by NPC member and environmental educator, Susan Sprout! Click here to catch up on the introductory issue of Underfoot.

Trout Lily
You know it’s time to go fishing in PA when the trout lilies bloom. Look for them as you slog in to your favorite trout stream.  They will have a single or double leaf depending on how long they have been growing. And those leaves are speckled and shaped just like the trout you seek, but smaller.

They do not flower for the first four to seven years of life. So, if you see a yellow flower nodding on an erect stalk coming up from the leaves, enjoy its loveliness. It’s been there awhile! Also known as dog-toothed violets, they grow in colonies from underground bulbs which are reported to be edible.  I have seen them push up in the spring through sand piles left from high water in the riparian buffer zone of Muncy Creek, my favorite fishing spot.

Coltsfoot
In early spring, you may see yellow dandelion-like flowers coming straight out of the soil on scaly stems with no leaves showing at all.  You have found young coltsfoot plants. Another nickname “Son before Father” indicates just that…flowers before leaves! After the flowers fluff their seeds like dandelions, members of the same Asteraceae Family, the hoof-shaped leaves with rather furry undersides will begin to emerge. 

This plant is common from Newfoundland south and west to Minnesota. Our intrepid colonial ancestors saw to that! Not knowing what plants they would find when they landed in the New World, they brought its roots and seeds with them. Why is that? Coltsfoot has been regarded by many cultures for thousands of years as one of the best remedies for coughs and congestion. Its leaves were a very important part of the early American “Doctor Mom’s” medicine chest.

Susan Sprout is a retired school teacher who continued teaching after retirement at Montour Preserve helping teachers of  handicapped students with nature walks, at the National Shell Museum as a curator of the fossil collection, and as teacher of Shell Studies at the local school on Sanibel Island. Based on her love and study of plants, she does living history presentations of medicinal plants used by Native Americans, colonial immigrants, and people living during the Civil War. Both she and her husband, Richard, serve as cannoneers  with Thompson’s Independent Battery C PA Light Artillery.  Sue has served on the Northcentral Pennsylvania Conservancy board in the past. The Sprouts have been Conservancy members for 29 years.