Wood frogs (Rana sylvatica) are early breeders and get geared up after the snow leaves and their preferred breeding sites, vernal pools, are free of ice. From a distance, the male wood frog call resembles the quacking of a duck. In the photo above, one can see the soft-balled size mass of eggs. As is the case here, the egg mass is usually anchored to some vegetation. The individual eggs are the size of a small marble of clear jelly…
Thanks to the diligence our dedicated trail monitor volunteer, Ken Karp, land Steward Kendall Eldredge and I get periodic updates of the location of downed trees impeding movement along the trail network. Ken uploads locational information and photos via a FieldMaps app on his cell phone – see the screen shot in the upper left. Though we have been slow due to other commitments, Kendall and I finally got a chance yesterday to get some trail clearing accomplished. As all…
The RU Ecopreserve has hosted a fall meet of the Delaware Valley/Hudson Valley Orienteering Associations for a number of years. The DVOA sets up a number of courses of varying complexity and length. Participants navigate cross-country from station to station. See the map above for an Intermediate level course. You can run it for time or just go slow and do it for the challenge and satisfaction of completing the course. Over 300 participants were out for this past December…
Building on prior years of student projects, we upgraded the Monarch Waystation & Pollinator Patch near the entrance to the EcoPreserve gravel parking lot. The site has been invaded by bush clover and creeping blackberry. So after clearing out the woody competitors, we rototilled and then rolled out an exciting new product called wildflower sod grown by a new company called MeadowLab. The fringing bare earth areas were seeded in with milkweed seed foraged from local milkweed plants growing elsewhere…