Family Camping

Posted on June 14, 2018 by Schuylkill Center

While spending time in nature helps us to unplug and rejuvenate, finding the time to do so while surrounded by the hustle and bustle of the city can often be a challenge. If you’re looking to get away, there are great spots around Philadelphia to relax and refresh with the family. In addition to checking out these great spots, make sure to join us June 23–24 for the 14th annual Great American Backyard Campout, which is held in collaboration with the National Wildlife Federation. Spend the night under the stars, hike through the forest, and tell stories around the campfire… all while within city limits. Call 215-482-7300 x 137 to register. Check out these amazing spots within a short drive of city limits.

: Join us for the 14th Annual Great American Backyard Campout

French Creek State Park (1 hour 10 minutes)
Located in Berks and Chester counties, French Creek State Park is the largest block of continuous forest located between New York City and Washington, D.C. Its options for sleeping arrangements—everything from cabins to cottages to yurts to traditional tents—make it a great spot for both experienced and beginning campers alike.

Ricketts Glen State Park (2 hours 30 minutes)

Ricketts Glen is home to the Glens Natural Area—a National Natural Landmark. The park has 26 miles of trails. The most popular is the Falls Trail (a 7.2 mile loop), where visitors can view 21 waterfalls. There are shorter trail options with waterfall vistas as well.

Cape Henlopen State Park (2 hours 15 minutes)

Cape Henlopen offers a variety of recreational options. Climb to the top of the World War II observation tower, take the Seaside or Pinelands nature trails to explore coastal habitats, enjoy a game of disc golf, or spend the day relaxing on the beach.

Wharton State Forest (45 minutes)
Nestled within the Pine Barrens, the Atsion Recreation Area is at the heart of the forest. Named after the Atsion Mansion, the recreation area is situated on a 100-acre lake perfect for kayaking and canoeing.

: Setting up tents for the night

: Fishing at Wind Dance Pond during the Great American Backyard Campout

Barn Swallows on the Wing

Posted on September 19, 2015 by Schuylkill Center

By Anna Lehr Mueser, Public Relations Manager

This summer our wildlife clinic enjoyed treating a number of young barn swallows. These graceful birds, iridescent blue on their backs and wings, live almost their entire lives on the wing, explains wildlife rehabilitator Michele Wellard. Once released, the barn swallows in the clinic’s care will take to the skies, landing only in their nests. Several groups of baby barn swallows were brought into the wildlife clinic on July 31, likely from several nests. The babies had fallen from the nest and the people who brought them in explained that they were unable to reach the nest (high in a barn) to return them. The swallow you see here has damage to his left wing . While the siblings and foster siblings with whom this swallow was cared for at the clinic were released at the end of August, this one isn’t ready to fly yet. Without his flight, this swallow won’t be able to live in the wild, so we’re keeping him until his wing feathers grow back.

Drunk Cedar Waxwing at the Wildlife Clinic

Posted on December 8, 2014 by Schuylkill Center

By Michele Wellard, Assistant Wildlife Rehabilitator

The woman who brought the waxwing in said he seemed “tame.” He just sat on her finger and wouldn’t move, and that’s what prompted her to call the clinic. She was convinced the bird had been raised by humans. When she brought him to me, perched on her finger, I thought he had a sort of ‘faraway’ look about him – like he wasn’t entirely present. There was just sort of an odd affect about him. Additionally, he also was in absolutely PERFECT feather, and he was in great body condition – upon palpating his breast muscle I could feel that he was almost fat, suggesting he’s been having no trouble finding winter berries, and maybe even overindulged a bit. This was a healthy looking bird.

His odd behavior continued the rest of the day and into the next – this dreamy look, like he was a million miles away in his head. Having read many times about this species’ proclivity for drunkenness, I looked up videos of drunk waxwings on youtube, and those depicted behaved just like this one – just being very still and being able to be handled easily. You might be surprised to learn that this is common. Since these birds are huge berry eaters, and some berries at this time in the year have fermented as they sit on the bush, drunk waxwings are an interesting occurrence.

These symptoms are also connected with head trauma in wild birds, so that was also a possibility. But given his behavior, we didn’t think that was the case. He was much, much more ‘still’ than other concussed birds I’ve treated, and there was just something odd about the way he looked. Sure enough, after two days in the ‘drunk tank’ – after some anti-inflammatories, lots of fluids, and lots of free berries and worms from us, he started acting like a wild bird, completely scared of us and fluttering around and flying just like a normal wild bird. Sometimes birds like this fly into windows, or get stepped on, so he could have really been injured. I’m glad the woman was concerned enough to bring him to us.

Here we are releasing him:

Update, December 11, 2014, on where the waxwing was released:

During the winter, waxwings spend all their time in large flocks, but this one was found all alone. Therefore, we could not find his original flock. Also, he was found in the city, with no nearby source of food. We didn’t know where he had come from before he fell to the ground. So, we had to decide where to let him go where he had the best chance of finding 1) appropriate food (berries) and 2.) other Waxwings. To do this, we looked on the e-bird website, where bird watchers report up-to-the-minute bird sightings. According to e-bird, the most recent sighting of a large flock of waxwings in the Philadelphia area was the day before the release, in Houston Meadow, which also happens to have many plants and bushes with berries still on them. So we decided that was the waxwing’s best chance of finding food and flockmates.

Four sounds from early May

Posted on May 8, 2014 by Schuylkill Center

By Anna Lehr Mueser, Public Relations Manager

This week the forests and fields are alive with sounds, all manner of animals calling out and leafy trees rustling in the breeze. This is also the time of year when our Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic is brimming with baby animals of all sorts. So, here are four samples of what May sounds like at the Schuylkill Center.

Toads, singing in afternoon sunlight. A basin in this field fills with water most of the year, creating a nice habitat for toads and other amphibians. Around the field and basin are vines, grasses, and flowering trees.

At the Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic, baby starlings call out for their meal. This time of year, the clinic is teeming with baby animals – sparrows, catbirds, owls, squirrels.

In the forest around our main building, songbirds call through the trees. There are lots of birds in this recording, can you name any of them?

Melissa Nase, Manager of Land Stewardship, transplants tiny Rudbeckia, black-eyed Susan seedlings in the Native Plant Nursery. These seedlings were grown from seeds collected here at the Schuylkill Center.

Baby Squirrels in November: Unusual Wildlife at the Clinic

Posted on March 27, 2014 by Schuylkill Center

By Rick Schubert, Director of Rehabilitation, the Wildlife Clinic

Anyone who has worked on a farm in a temperate climate knows that winter is no time to take a break; wintertime is a race against the clock, reorganizing, repairing, cleaning, planning, and preparing for the upcoming busy season. Wildlife rehabilitation is no different. Although we take in injured adult wild animals 12 months a year, our business spikes in the spring, summer, and fall with the addition of orphaned and displaced neonates. Usually, winter is a slower time for wildlife patient intakes, but it’s a critical period to spend getting ready for the onslaught that spring will bring.

In recent years, this trend has been shifting at the Schuylkill Center. We’ve noticed an uptick in the number of patients we get between November and March, as well as more unusual cases overall. It seems clear that, as weather patterns change, seasonal disruptions emerge in our wildlife populations.

Continue reading →

From tailess to tail in a matter of hours…

Posted on March 27, 2012 by Schuylkill Center

“Imping” a Cooper’s hawk’s damaged tail

Last week the staff of the wildlife clinic did something remarkable, especially for those of us who make our living working at a desk. They rebuilt a bird’s tail.

The bird in question, a Cooper’s hawk, was brought into the clinic in February with multiple injuries, including head trauma and a severely damaged tail. The clinic nursed the bird for several weeks as it recovered from a concussion and regained its strength. The bird’s tail feathers, however, were still in tatters, preventing proper flight. As I learned from our clinic director, Rick Schubert, “a bird’s tail is its steering and its brakes. Without it, there’s no control.”

Waiting for new feathers to grow in could have necessitated months of captivity, putting an unhealthy amount of stress on the bird. So instead, the clinic decided to fix the tail and send the hawk on his way.

Using a millennia-old falconer’s technique known as imping, the clinic grafted new tail feathers onto the hawk’s badly damaged tail. According to rehabber Michele Wellard, it’s not unusual to replace one or two feathers this way. The wonder of this operation was its scope: the bird’s tail was practically destroyed, requiring a dozen new feathers.

Imping is an intricate procedure, as each replacement feather must match the original in size, type and placement, as well as the angle and positioning of the feather. Before beginning work on the live bird, clinic staffers carefully examined, sorted and laid out all the donor feathers with labels indicating their designated position on the bird’s tail.

replacement feathers are sorted and labeled

Next, the tips are cut off of the donor feathers and patient’s torn feathers are cut down almost to the base, exposing the hollow interior of each feather.

Finally, Rick used small bamboo skewers and epoxy to attach the new feathers to the old. For each feather, one end of the skewer is glued into the donor feather; the other end is then slid into the base of the existing feather until the two feather tips meet. When done correctly, the skewer is completely hidden inside the hollow feathers and everything works as good as new.

a new tail

The hawk was sedated and hooded during the procedure, to reduce its stress. Afterwards, “it looked a little confused at first,” says Michele, but it soon took to its new tail. After a few days of practice flights, the hawk was successfully released back into the wild.

For the whole story, check out this piece from WHYY’s NewsWorks: Roxborough’s Schuylkill Center helps injured hawk take flight.

Naomi Leach, Marketing and PR Coordinator