Nature Playscape Grand Opening

We celebrated the grand opening of the Nature Playscape on Saturday, May 8. The playscape is located on the Pond Overlook Trail and is open during daylight hours.

Take a visit to Lancaster County's Shenks Ferry Wilflower Preserve

Katie Says: Soar with the swallows

Last weekend, my boyfriend and I visited one of our favorite places: Lorimer Park. Lorimer borders Fox Chase Farm, and as one walks the border of the park, you can look onto the rolling green hills of the farm. That day, the hills were being visited by a host of bird species all looking for their dinner: American robins, American bluebirds, European starlings, red-winged blackbirds and three species of swallows.

I love all bird species, but I especially love swallows. I have always said that if ever I were to be reincarnated, it is a swallow that I would want to come back as. I just love the effortless way they swoop, glide and zoom over the landscape, sometimes seeming to enjoy flying for the sheer fun of it. These swallows were flying over one of the highest hills of un-mown grass in order to collect insects that were bravely (or foolishly!) rising from the safety of the grass to land on the canopy of the nearby trees.

For a while, Quentin and I focused our binoculars on individual swallows to watch them fly. There were barn swallows, with their deeply-forked tail; tree swallows, with blue backs and white bellies; and cliff swallows, which look very similar to barn swallows, but lack the forked tail. Let me tell you, focusing your binoculars on an individual swallow is a great way to keep your skills with a pair of binoculars tuned—you constantly have to rock the focus to keep them in your sights! We then decided to try something new, and focused instead on individual insects rising from the grass. It wasn’t long before the insect that I was following would disappear behind the blur of a swooping swallow. Swallows are such good flyers that not only do they feed on the wing, but they drink and bathe as well, swooping to the water’s surface to get a drink or just beneath the surface for a bath, a literal “quick dip.”

Sometimes it’s fun to analyze the “hows” of nature and sometimes we ponder the “whys,” but sometimes…it’s just nice to stop and watch the swallows. Have a question or a story of your own to share? Post a comment below; it’s free and you don’t have to create an account!

Katie Says: What is the Pennsylvania state insect?

I’ll give you a hint through a song lyric: “You would not believe your eyes if ten million _____ lit up the world as I fell asleep.” Did you guess? This is the first phrase from Owl City’s “Fireflies,” a song that quickly became a sensation after its release in 2009. The song plays on a familiar childhood memory of chasing and catching fireflies in our backyards and maybe even putting a few in a jar to watch their soothing nightlight as we fell asleep. It’s no wonder then, that the firefly (or lightning bug) became the official Pennsylvania state insect in 1974. We may all know the firefly for its greenish-yellow glow, but there’s much more to this insect than blinks the eye!

Despite their name, these insects are actually a species of beetle that can be found on every continent except Antarctica. There are over 2,000 species of fireflies worldwide and an astounding 175 species here in the United States alone! Although not all adult fireflies produce light, all species of eggs and larvae glow as a way of warning potential predators that they taste bad. The adults that do produce light do so in order to find not only a mate, but sometimes…dinner! Some fireflies have been known to copy the flashing patterns of other species in order to eat them!

Even the chemistry behind a firefly’s flash is amazing. Unlike bioluminescent animals which simply glow, the firefly’s ability to turn its light on and off (i.e., blink) is a rare find in nature. And the energy used to produce the light? In a normal incandescent light bulb, 10 percent of the energy that goes into the bulb is used to produce light, and the rest is emitted as heat. With fireflies, an astounding 90 percent of the energy goes into producing the light! Talk about the ultimate Energy Star appliance!

I was thrilled last week to have spotted my first firefly of the season in my own backyard! Have you spotted your first yet? Have a question or a story of your own to share? Post a comment below; it’s free and you don’t have to create an account!