Gloucester County Nature Club
Gloucester County Nature Club Welcome! This site is intended to provide information about the Gloucester County Nature Club. Nature Club meetings are held at 7:00 on the second Thursday of each month (except July and August) at the Holy Nativity Lutheran Church in Wenonah, unless stated otherwise in the newsletter. To become a member, visit the Contact Us page.
Our Mission
The Gloucester County Nature Club is a private, nonprofit 501c3 organization of people who share a common interest, curiosity and love for the natural world. The Club strives to promote sound conservation practices and to educate others about nature and the environment.
Opportunities for Education and Participation
The Nature Club provides monthly programs, field trips, and newsletters from September through June and special field trips in the Summer months. In addition, the Nature Club holds special events throughout the year. For upcoming programs, field trips, or events you can check out our latest newsletter on the news page.
SAVE MAPLE RIDGE! The effort to save the former Maple Ridge Golf Course property as a natural area continues on. For details on the property and the effort to save it as well as how you can get involved and help, see the Friends of Maple Ridge webpage at www.friendsofmapleridge.org.
The Nature Club is now on Facebook! To go to our new Facebook page, please click on the blue Facebook icon to the left. You will need to have a Facebook membership, and new group members will need to be "approved" by the administrator.
Online Dues Payment: To pay your membership dues electronically via PayPal, click here.
Check out Gloucester County Nature columns on the Gloucester County Times website A collection of past Gloucester County Nature columns can be viewed on the Gloucester County Times website at: http://www.nj.com/gloucester/voices/index.ssf/gloucester_county_nature_club/index.html.
Natural Events for the month of February
Skunk cabbage flowers are emerging from the ground, in wetlands throughout the County. As they grow they generate heat, which melts the frozen ground around them. Alder catkins are swelling and will open on the first warm days. Melting snow may reveal the trackways of meadow voles, dug along the interface between the frozen ground and snow cover. Broom crowberry in bloom in the Pinelands. Mourning cloak butterflies emerge from hibernation on warm days. Killdeer and great blue herons return from the south as waterways thaw and snow cover melts. Chipmunks reappear around bird feeders. Best time for viewing tundra swans at Whitesbog and other Pinelands ponds. Upcoming Events
Field Trip – Wheelabrator Waste to Energy Facility, Westville, February 18, 2012 Starts 10:00 AM
Leaders: Jayne Rhynard, Joe Achey
The Conservation Committee is pleased to sponsor this month's indoor "field" trip. We invite you to join us for a specially guided tour of the Wheelabrator plant to see firsthand how our municipal waste is converted into electricity powering 15,000 Gloucester County homes. We will meet at 10:00 AM in the reception area at the front of the building and you may park in the lot closer to the plant inside the gates. We will learn about non-ferrous metals processing, electric power production and air quality control. In addition, we can hear about the Eastern Bobwhite project and weather permitting, walk the 150 acre Wildlife at Work site, the first of its kind in the United States.
The GREAT BACKYARD BIRD COUNT happens this month! This year's Great Backyard Bird Count takes place on February 17 - 20. Please click the button below for details on how you can participate in this free event and help researchers.
Also, in a separate event, you can Help Project FeederWatch Track Backyard Birds. Bird watchers are needed to help scientists discover changes in bird populations. Project FeederWatch is for people of all ages and skill levels. It begins in November 2011 and runs through April 6, 2012. Taking part is easy. Anyone can count the numbers and kinds of birds at their feeders and enter their information on the FeederWatch website. To learn more and to sign up, visit www.feederwatch.org or call the Cornell Lab toll-free at (866) 982-2473. In return for the $15 fee ($12 for Cornell Lab members) participants receive the FeederWatcher’s Handbook, an identification poster of the most common feeder birds, a calendar, complete instructions, and Winter Bird Highlights, an annual summary of FeederWatch findings.
More Upcoming Events
In addition to our own club events list, we've added a list of nature-related events held by other organizations to the Events page. Click here to be taken to the Events page.
Past Nature Club Events
BIRD QUEST 2011 was held on Saturday May 7, 2011. See the Bird Quest Page for a wrap-up.
THE MAD HATTER'S TREE PARTY was held on Saturday October 23, 2010, and was a great success. 169 people participated (including many families and children), and another 106 people had to be added to a waiting list and unfortunately turned away. See the Mad Hatter's photo page to see some photos of the event.
The EAST COAST VULTURE FESTIVAL was held on March 6, 2010. Go to www.eastcoastvulturefestival.org for details.
BIRD QUEST '09: The event on May 2, 2009 marked the 10th anniversary of the Gloucester County Bird Quest. We had many special events to help celebrate this year. Thank you all for coming in the less than favorable weather. The response from the people who participated was – This Year was the best EVER! Our winning team saw 76 species while for the day we had 128 species seen by all groups. We had 285 people registered and amazingly despite the weather almost all of them showed up back at the park.
Woodford Cedar Run Refuge with their live birds back at the park was a great cap of a wonderful day. Folks really enjoyed it and learned a lot from Katie and her feathered friends. Everyone received our Bird Quest t-shirt, had a nice lunch and this year we added cake to celebrate our 10th year anniversary. A major milestone. As a special gift we gave out a free exclusive 10th anniversary Bird Quest tote bag to all participants! This nice cloth tote is a perfect size to take to the store or carry your books.
We had three full buses with one bus filled girl scouts (two troops - 48 kids and adults) who had a wonderful time. They all told me they will be back next year and bringing a friend.
- Brian Hayes, BirdQuest Coordinator
For some pictures from the event, click on the following link: Bird Quest 2009 Photos.
Check out more past club events by clicking the "Events" link above or by clicking the following link: Past Nature Club Events.
Recent Nature Club Field Trips
Amico Island Birding (October 8,2011)
About 40 species of birds were seen on this morning trip to 55-acre Amico Island, a Burlington County park at the confluence of Rancocas Creek and the Delaware River. This included six species of warblers, including Tennessee, Nashville, blackpoll, and magnolia in addition to common yellowthroat and hundreds of yellow-rumps. Also seen were bald eagle, belted kingfisher, and osprey. A few butterflies and late-blooming wildflowers were taken note of. We walked about two miles on wide, level mowed trails. The weather was lovely – a cool, bright, late summer day, with just a few hints of autumn foliage. The trip was very ably led by Gary and Marge Lizzi.
Pine Barrens (September 24, 2011)
Despite predictions for bad weather, this day dawned only slightly overcast, and stayed that way except for an occasional burst of bright sunshine. Several Pine Barrens forest types were studied. Walter’s greenbrier and smooth winterberry were found growing near Shinn’s Branch. A stroll along the shore of Pakim Pond produced pitcher plants, three species of sundews, striped bladderwort, and zig-zag bladderwort, this last species being represented only by its tiny cleistogamous flowers. Dwarf clubmoss, foxtail clubmoss, and curly grass fern were found. Perhaps the best find of the day was the beautiful pine barrens gentian, a signature plant of the Pine Barrens. The trip was led by Karl Anderson.
Riverwinds Scenic Trail Butterfly Walk (August 13, 2011)
This trip began with a leisurely walk around the mile-long Riverwinds Trail, which found seventeen species of butterflies including hackberry emperor, Zabulon and silver-spotted skippers, spicebush and tiger swallowtails, American copper, red-spotted purple, red-banded hairstreak, eastern tailed blue, pearl crescent, monarch, question mark, buckeye, cabbage white, summer azure, red admiral, and Horace’s duskywing. This was followed up by a visit to the butterfly garden at the Wheelabrator Wildlife Refuge, where American lady, northern broken-dash, and broad-winged, crossline, dun, Peck’s, swarthy, tawny-edged, and Delaware skippers brought the day’s list to 27 species. The trip leader was Chris Herz.
Cedar Lake (July 10, 2011)
Some of the birds seen on this trip included bald eagle, red-shouldered hawk (nice looks at a low-flying bird), white-eyed vireo, and yellow-billed cuckoo. Redroot, Canada Saint John’s-wort, pickerelweed, golden hedge-hyssop, Small’s yellow-eyed grass, meadow-beauty, and bladderworts were in bloom. The small pink flowers of thread-leaved sundew were particularly abundant, and along with the white flowers of spatulate-leaved sundew made an attractive border along the pond edges. Southern leopard frogs seemed to be everywhere, cricket frogs were numerous, and good looks were gotten of the usually elusive carpenter frog. For the “odies” there were at least a dozen species of dragonflies and damselflies, including swamp spreadwing and an early-season yellow-legged meadowhawk. Trip leaders were Karl Anderson and Gale Cannon.
Salem County Early Spring Birding (March 12, 2011)
On Saturday March 12 in Salem County 4 intrepid early risers viewed 49 bald eagles as they flew out of a roost at dawn. After collecting seven additional later-arriving participants, the group of 11 visited some bucolic sites and waterscape overlooks around the Salem River and saw and heard 44 species of birds. The trip ended at Marilyn Patterson’s nature preserve in Alloway where she identified 3 species of frogs calling and pointed out praying mantis cocoons scattered throughout a field. The trip was led by Jonathan Stillwell.
Check out more of our past field trips by clicking the "Fieldtrips" link above or by clicking the following link: Past Field Trips.
Our Book: Natural Places of Gloucester County NJ
Our book "Natural Places of Gloucester County NJ" has been printed, and copies are available for purchase at club meetings, and at a few local retailers including:
Damingers Country Store - 641 Main St, Sewell (Mantua Township), NJ 08080
For some sample pages and a way to order the book online, click on the following link: Natural Places of Gloucester County NJ.
Hummingbird and Butterfly Garden Plants: At our May 2010 Meeting, Ward Dasey from the Palmyra Cove Nature Park conducted a presentation on plants for Hummingbird and Butterfly Gardens. As promised, his plant list is posted here: Palmyra Cove Plant List. An excellent website to check out with much more information on Butterfly and Hummingbird Gardens (including a plant list) can be found at http://www.njaudubon.org/SectionBackyardHabitat/CreateaGarden.aspx
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