Hickory Run State Park (6-Apr-2016)

It has been several days since I have been out last. Sunday I took the day off and the past two days I have been helping a sick family member. Even if I was able to, I probably wouldn't have gone out on Monday anyway. The rain doesn't bother me, but mix in cold and it just isn't for me. I want to get back to working on the Lehigh Gorge, but I have to walk in pretty far now to get to new areas and I am waiting for the warm weather to come back. I ended up going to Hickory Run State Park for this clean-up and started with hiking the Shades of Death Trail. 

It didn't take long to find my first items of the day. They were along the road at the first trail head I got to.

Cans were the first thing I found along the trail itself. Trash in general was pretty constant along the entirety of the trail. Not the first time I have cleaned this trail and I can't say it is even disappointing anymore. I just expect there to be trash now.

Can you see what I spotted? Let's go in for a closer look...

It's Snow Fleas! In this case the snow fleas are Collembola, also called Springtails. I did see patches of snow along the trail, but all of the Springtails that I could see were on water. This was just the first batch that I ran into along this hike. I have found Springtails on puddles and on small streams before and I do not know if they are drawn to the water or just get trapped when trying to cross it. They do not seem to break the water tension even in massive groups like this and when I looked at them closely there was a lot of movement going on, so at least the majority of them are still alive. I see them often in the colder months and I am fascinated by them every time.

Some of the items I found along the run were most certainly wash down from the beach at Sand Spring Lake. It would be nice if there was a way to stop the trash from leaving that lake, but all the solutions I can think of come with their own problems. 

Along the Shades of Death Trail there are several dams on Sand Spring Run. The dams create small lakes and above is the largest of the three. 

Found this lure on the side of the lake in the photo above it. I think it fell down from a tree branch above over the winter. It was really easy to get and I can't believe someone would have left it where it was. 

There are several small waterfalls along this trail. Every one showed signs of too much human impact. Eroded trails, cut trees and of course trash. There is an idea that getting people out to enjoy nature will in turn get them to appreciate and protect it. From what I see on a daily basis, it just doesn't work that way. The more people that venture into the woods, the more problems you find there. If people entered these places with respect, I would love for them to be there, but respect is truly lacking and it is very evident. 

This small pile was from around the waterfall above. I found several more items in the immediate area after taking this photo.

These waterfalls are beautiful, but so are the other surroundings. Around this waterfall too, there were cut trees and places where the trail was eroded. This is a problem for many popular sites throughout this part of the state. 

When retrieving this gatorade bottle I received another Springtail surprise. This time there were many, many more than the first group I came across.  

This was everything collected off of the Shades of Death Trail. The trail isn't that long and for the distance I hiked, this was a lot of trash. 

I wanted to get away from the trash for awhile and just do a hike on a trail that not many people would venture down. So I headed out towards the Boulder Field and something that flew across the road caught my attention. It was an Osprey and it was headed over Hickory Run Lake. I didn't want to stop at the lake, I didn't want to pick up more trash on this trip, but I did want photos. I parked and took the trail to the dam to get the view of the lake that is above. I did get photos, they weren't that great and of course I cleaned up trash from the lake back to my car. 

Like I said, not great, it is an Osprey though. It did not stick around while I was near the dam and had visibility over the lake. I did hear it again when I was back at my car. 

More trash, just from the dam to my car at Hickory Run Lake. I had already cleaned this area over the winter, some were items I missed, some were new. 

After that stop I finally found a place that looked good and got out on a trail that I didn't think people frequented. It was a great stop. Only two cans on the whole hike and I discovered this Porcupine up a pine tree. Normally when I come across Porcupines they are on the ground and only climb when approached. This individual was high up when I spotted him and unless it saw me from a distance it was up the tree for a different reason. 

Driving out I had to stop for these two Wild Turkeys. They were not frightened at all by my car and only started to run when I got out to photograph them. I have said before, you most likely won't see many of the critters I come across when you visit your local state park. I am extremely lucky in what I find and some things like porcupines are not a normal occurrence. 

Not sure where I am headed tomorrow. Dependent on temperature and if I am feeling up to it, I may be back to working on the gorge. 

You too can help with taking out the trash! If you get out hiking take a grocery bag with you, give it a second use and fill it with trash while you are out! Every bit helps. You can also help contributing to this project here: Help Fund Taking Out the Trash

Like this blog? Like it on Facebook: Taking Out the Trash in Eastern PA

Winter Wildlife Normally Not Seen

With the majority of trash covered in a deep blanket of snow, I spent last week searching for some of the creatures that are normally not thought of during winter. Some, like these spiders, are not that hard to find as they slowly creep across the snow.  

Spiders are not something that I can easily identify. I know that in these five photos there are at least two species, but beyond that I can not tell you much about them. 

Carefully look at the photo above and the photo below. The one above is a spider, the one below is not. Do you know what the one below is? 

This is an arachnid, but it is definitely not a spider. This is a Harvestmen also commonly called Daddy Long Legs. From what I have seen these are much less common in the winter than spiders. In five days I only came across two Harvestmen.

Not a Mosquito, not a Midge, it is a Crane Fly. Many people mistake Crane Flies for giant Mosquitos,  but these are absolutely harmless to us. If you want to see something really interesting look up Crane Fly Larvae. The larvae is aquatic and looks nothing like the adult.

While trying to get a decent photo of the Crane Fly the little critter here came into frame. At this time of year it is not normal to find one of these all alone. Generally you will find them in groups of hundreds or thousands. This is a Collembola or Springtail. Springtails were once classified as insects, but have been deemed distinct enough to be moved to the class Entognatha. This type of Springtail are often called Snow Fleas, they are not a Flea and like Crane Flies are completely harmless to humans. Most likely you would not see a single individual by itself, they are not much larger than a pin head. In large groups though they blanket the snow. So if you happen to be out hiking when snow is covering the ground and you come across a black patch, look closely it may be a large group of Springtails.

Years ago I came across an inchworm crossing a trail in the snow. It was the first time I had ever seen an invertebrate on the snow and it was what got me interested in searching for them when there is not much else to see. Inch Worms become Geometer Moths as adults. I am not sure how the larval stage survives these conditions or what it would even eat.

The day I took these photos I had the lens I use for birds on my camera. It doesn't do the greatest at photographing small creatures. I searched for both of these insects the rest of the week, but only found them on my first day out. The one above is a Gall Wasp. A Gall is a deformation of a plant due to an insect, like the larval stage of a Gall Wasp, living inside. These insects will feed off of the xylem or phloem (dependent upon insect type or species) of the plant and will emerge as adults. This particular adult Gall Wasp had reduced wings and would not be able to fly.   

This insect can also be called a Snow Flea. A much better common name for it is a Scorpion Fly. Like the Gall Wasp above this species of Scorpion Fly has reduced wings and can't fly. 

Have you ever heard of a PET water quality test for a stream or river? PET stands for Plecoptera, Ephemeroptera and Tricoptera, this is the Stoneflies, Mayflies and Caddisflies. There are different standards for different PET tests, but all look at the diversity of the larval stages of these insect orders to determine the overall water quality of a water body. The more diversity generally means the higher the water quality with these orders being sensitive to water conditions. The insect in the photo above is an adult Winter Stonefly. 

Through the week I found that not all of the arthropods will make it through these conditions. Not sure what killed this spider, but it may have been not finding cover overnight when the temperature dropped considerably.                             

One last insect I will point out is the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid. This is an introduced species that is currently killing off our Eastern Hemlocks. The Adelgid itself cannot be seen in this photo, but you can identify it by the "woolly" casing it surrounds itself in. For years now eradication efforts have tried to eliminate this pest without overwhelming success. The Eastern Hemlock is the State Tree of Pennsylvania and the loss of this species could have major ecological impacts in the state. Hemlocks shade mountain streams year round helping to maintain the cold temperatures in them. Without these trees we could potentially loose the cold water communities found in these streams. 

With the snow I did not find much trash at all, but did pick up a few items. This bag was along a roadside. The ones below were in a parking lot. 

I know this post was a little different than normal, but I hope you enjoyed it and possibly learned something. More posts will be up soon!

You too can help with taking out the trash! If you get out hiking take a grocery bag with you, give it a second use and fill it with trash while you are out! Every bit helps. You can also help contributing to this project here: Help Fund Taking Out the Trash