The Nature of Delaware

By Joe Sebastiani, Members Program Team Leader

Yesterday, I co-led a trip to the Nottingham Serpentine Barrens in nearby Chester County, PA with botanist Janet Ebert.  Each year, the Delaware Nature Society offers a few trips to this recently designated National Natural Landmark. 

This rare ecosystem of pitch pine, scrub oaks, and rare wildflowers and grasses is a bizarre and fun place to visit if you are a naturalist.  Serpentine rock is the dominant feature here, but is rare at the surface on earth.  In North America there are 3 main areas where it occurs…California and southern Oregon, western Newfoundland and the Gaspe Peninsula, and southeastern PA and northeastern MD. 

Serpentine aster (Aster depauperatus) is common at Nottingham, but is a globally rare plant, growing only here and a few other locations nearby.

The soil is barren, rocky, low in essential nutrients, and high in heavy metals like nickel, chromium, and magnesium.  These conditions make it difficult or impossible for most of the plants in our area to grow.  Therefore, the Serpentine Barrens plant community is a rare collection of plants that can handle the tough conditions.  These include prairie grasses that live mainly in the mid-west, plants that usually live on the sandy coastal plain, and tiny plants that can handle living on bare rock and gravel.

Other than the globally rare serpentine aster pictured above, we saw lots of other specialized and very rare plants.  Our walk took us through open savanna habitat and recently burned-over areas dominated by grasses and scattered pitch pines.  In other areas we found strange oaks, some of which shorter that us at their full-grown height.  Oddities such as bear oak (Quercus ilicifolia), blackjack oak (Q. marilandica), dwarf chinkapin oak (Q. prinoides), and post oak (Q. stellata) created shrubby thickets among the pines.

Striped gentians (Gentiana villosa) were blooming among the grasses at the serpentine barrens.

This area was once greenbriar thicket and pitch pines, but a severe fire 2 years ago turned it into beautiful savanna.

Janet Ebert is a freelance botanist who knows her stuff!  As she pointed out one rare species after the next, the group soaked it up and took notes.  Names like big bluestem, little bluestem, Indian grass, prairie dropseed, purpletop grass, whorled milkweed, wild indigo, swamp thistle, tall sunflower, black huckleberry, and gray goldenrod were eagerly written into personal notebooks.

Tall sunflower (Helianthus giganteus) were in bloom along the trails.

Yellow-eyed grass (Hypoxis hirsuta) was found blooming in a few locations.

Make your way over to Nottingham County Park in southwestern Chester County, PA to experience this wonderful and beautiful serpentine barrens.  This unique area is close in proximity to Delaware, but you feel like you are out in the mid-west or on the southeastern coastal plain.  It is a nice and inexpensive way for a naturalist to “get away”.

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By Joe Sebastiani:  Members Program Team Leader

The 3rd annual Ashland Hawk Watch started on September 1st and runs to the last day of November.  The Delaware Nature Society has partnered with the Delmarva Ornithological Society, www.dosbirds.org, to make this daily hawk watch site an exciting reality.  The 2009 fall migration season has started off very well, with 302 raptors counted as of yesterday, including an ultra-rare Swallow-tailed Kite on September 6th.

Hawks, or more precisely, raptors, are counted as they migrate past Ashland, and data is collected for the Hawk Migration Association of North America, www.hmana.org, which compiles data from over 200 sites across the Americas.  The data that we collect assists with the overall understanding of raptor migration patterns and helps reveal population fluctuations. 

Observers scan the skies for raptors passing the Ashland Hawk Watch.

Yesterday, we quickly realized that it was going to be a great day to be looking for migrating raptors.  Early in the morning, a pair of Northern Harriers, quickly followed by an Osprey and a few Kestrels sent our Hawk Watch Coordinator, Cyrus Moqtaderi, scurrying up the hill to start the day’s count. 

Join Cyrus Moqtaderi, this year's Hawk Watch Coordinator, to spot migrant hawks, eagles, falcons, harriers, osprey, and many other birds. Cyrus works 5-days a week at the Ashland Hawk Watch, and on other days, volunteer counters from the Delmarva Ornithological Society are present.

Soon, the partly cloudy skies produced what was the best flight of raptors that we have recorded in the first 10 days of September over the last 3 years.  It was an American Kestrel highway, with a record-breaking 43 seen for the day.  The previous high was 22 recorded on September 22, 2007.  Other birds yesterday included 8 Osprey, 9 Bald Eagle, 4 Northern Harrier, 16 Sharp-shinned Hawk, 8 Cooper’s Hawk, 2 Red-shouldered Hawk, 4 Broad-winged Hawk, 5 Merlin (1 shy of tying the record), and 1 Peregrine Falcon (plus one unidentified bird) for a total of 101 raptors for the day. 

A record-breaking one-day total of 43 American Kestrel flew past the Ashland Hawk Watch yesterday.

This Merlin, a falcon only a little bigger than a Kestrel, cruised past the Hawk Watch closely, but very quickly. 5 of these falcons migrated past the Ashland Hawk Watch yesterday. The most we have ever had in one day is 6.

Local raptors that aren’t passing through were seen from the Hawk Watch as well.  These are not counted in the official tally of migrants.  We were entertained by a local Cooper’s Hawk jostling with a couple of American Crows.  The hawk’s attention was centered on one crow, while the other one kept its distance during the aerial maneuvering.  

A juvenile Cooper's Hawk goes after an American Crow. Is this play? Practice? Or is the hawk attacking the crow to catch a meal?

The American Crow reaches up to fend off an attack from the juvenile Cooper's Hawk.

Take some time this fall to visit the Ashland Hawk Watch!  The hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily through November.  Come to watch the drama of the raptor migration spectacle, and experience the seasonal change at one of the most scenic locations in Delaware.  During the period of September 14 to 25, the bulk of the migrating Broad-winged Hawks will be coming through.  Last year we had a few days where over 1,000 passed by.  Other good times to visit are the few days following a cold front.  For more information about the Ashland Hawk Watch, visit http://delawarenaturesociety.org/hawkwatch.html.

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By Joe Sebastiani, Members Program Team Leader

I know you all must be on the edge of your seats waiting for the answer to the recent butterfly quiz, so here it is.

29 people took the quiz, and the 21 of you that picked Gray Hairstreak are correct.  Let’s review the butterflies in the quiz.

This summer azure lacks a tails on the hindwing. The similar looking Eastern Tailed Blue has tails, and an orange spot on the hindwing.

Two of the choices were the Summer Azure and the Eastern Tailed Blue.  Pictured above is the Summer Azure.  Compared with the Gray Hairstreak below, it has dots instead of lines on the underside, plus it lacks tails.  The similar Eastern Tailed Blue (not pictured) looks like a Summer Azure with tails and a small orange spot on the outer portion of the hindwing.

The answer to the butterfly quiz is the Gray Hairstreak. Note the tails, and an orange spot on the hindwing, combined with lines on the underside, not a row of spots, as in the Summer Azure and Eastern Tailed Blue.

We’ve eliminated the Summer Azure and the Eastern Tailed Blue, but what about the White M Hairstreak?  As you look below, notice that the orange area is set a little more inward from the rear edge of the hindwing.  Also, there is a distinctive white spot inward from the white line.  If you look closely, you can see a white “M” or “W” inward from the orange spot.  Lots of other hairstreaks have a feature that is similar, so it usually isn’t a good identifying field mark, even though this butterfly is named after it. 

This White M Hairstreak has a white spot in the central part of the underside. Also, the orange spot is set more inward from the rear edge of the hindwing than that of the Gray Hairstreak.

The White M Hairstreak is rather uncommon in Delaware, whereas the other three butterflies in the quiz are very common.  This is a great time of year to observe butterflies nectaring on wildflowers in meadows.  Ashland Nature Center has a meadow across the covered bridge from the center where you can look for lots of butterflies, dragonflies, and many other intersting insects among the blooming wildflowers.  Photos by Joe Sebastiani.

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by Derek Stoner, Education Program Assistant

A Magnolia Warbler flicks its distinctive black-tipped tail, and gives us a glimpse of its yellow belly.

Bright flashes of yellow, white, orange, green, black, and white dance through the treetops, like nature’s disco ball turned loose.  Vibrant warblers, vireos, tanagers, orioles, cuckoos, and flycatchers flit through the canopy.  

On many a fall day, the forests are full of active songbirds, feasting on caterpillars to fuel their southward flight.  Look at that skulking Magnolia Warbler above.  He’s too busy searching for insects to show his face! 

A female Scarlet Tanager is a well-camouflaged olive green, blending perfectly into the leafy background.

A young female Blackpoll Warbler pops out of a hemlock tree.

or this…

A Great-crested Flycatcher shows off its yellow belly.

Often the biggest challenge of watching fall songbirds is simply getting a good enough look! 

The Thursday Bird Walks at Ashland are a wonderful way to get acquainted with these fascinating birds, and there are many Delaware Nature Society field trips to nearby preserves that will help you piece together the puzzle! 

Free bird walks are held at Ashland Nature Center on the first and third Thursday of each month as well as every Sunday and Monday at the Bucktoe Creek Preserve.  All start at 8am.  View www.delawarenaturesociety.org for directions.  See the sidebar for additional upcoming programs.

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