Most folks opted to stay home this morning, but two hardy hikers braved the elements and joined us to look at wildflowers in the rain.
I can’t remember another spring when the wake-robins overlapped with the lady’s-slippers!
In other news, we were pleased to be able to help the Raiders of the Lost Lark team win the Shaver’s Creek Birding Cup this year, camping in our field overnight for a head-start in their Blair County-focused effort. The Yellow-breasted Chat was still hanging around for them yesterday, and a rare-for-us Clay-colored Sparrow showed up as well. They also picked up a Kentucky Warbler on their way down the hollow. Congratulations to them.
It’s always been a difficult question for us: How best to protect Plummer’s Hollow from plant thieves and ATV riders and the various drug dealers and miscreants who sometimes hang out along the township road below the railroad tracks, while at the same time being welcoming to the general public? Some years back, we had several jack-in-the-pulpit plants disappear the day after my mother led a wildflower walk up the hollow. That made us a bit more reluctant to advertise what’s up here, and for years we hesitated to even lead hikes up the road. But we kept the road open as a public walking trail, because it seems wrong to keep this much land closed to walkers when it’s less than half a mile from town—especially when there are so few other places to walk close by.
So now we’re trying something new: a Friends of Plummer’s Hollow group. If people we know and trust are in the hollow more often, that seems like the best kind of protection we could ask for. And Plummer’s Hollow has a new caretaker, Eric Oliver, a professional conservationist with expertise in native forest restoration, to help guide us with this new venture (which was my brother Mark’s idea). We’re looking for local nature-lovers who are able to visit often and, if they’re able-bodied enough, help out on occasion with conservation projects such as native tree plantings, invasive species suppression efforts, controlled burns, and that kind of thing. Other group events might be purely for fun: a sledding party in January, firefly walks in June, etc. I’m looking forward to seeing what kind of ideas and energy people bring. We’ve set up a private group on Facebook, and are hoping to build momentum there for an organizational meeting later on this spring. For those not on social media, I’m firing this blog back up, because WordPress does a pretty good job with free email subscriptions these days.
Plummer's Hollow, Pennsylvania 