Featured News

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS:

How You Can Help Provide Woodland Habitat for Great Horned Owls AND Save Money on Tree Care

Lou Giroud Tree Service, Inc. is launching a special promotion to help the Trust plant more woodlands for these majestic owls. In March 2007, the Pennypack Trust bought a partially wooded property that has provided nesting habitat for Great Horned Owls. After the purchase, Pennypack removed an old cottage from the land and now needs to plant new trees to expand the owls’ hunting and rooting grounds. You can help provide woodland habitat and save money, too! When you purchase tree care services of $250 or more between now and March 31, Giroud will donate $50 to the Trust in your name and also give you $50 off you bill. Call Giroud Tree Service at 215-682-7704 for more information or to schedule an appointment.
Click here for a printable coupon.

Pennypack Birders Explore Bulgaria

Inspired by their own birding mate, Yoav Chudnoff, sixteen Delaware Valley bird aficionados (including many Pennypack “regulars”) flew to Sofia, Bulgaria in June this year. The Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds provided a local expert, Gerard Gorman, a prominent European bird guide, as leader. Sighting 175 species of birds in habitats ranging from high mountains to rolling plains and seacoast cliffs and beaches, meeting nice local people, and experiencing Bulgarian cuisine and accommodations made for a fine adventure. Trip members attested to the thrill of spotting Balkan specialties like Black-headed Buntings, Isabelline Wheatears, Paddyfield Warblers and the fabled Wallcreeper.


Bulgaria will enter the European Common Market in 2008 and foreign investment likely will change the face of some the areas visited by the birders. The group found that Bulgarian habitats, which are largely free of pesticides, fertilizers and pollution, offered more species and greater overall numbers of birds than more traditionally managed European landscapes. The members of the expedition expressed their satisfaction for having had an opportunity to visit Bulgaria’s relatively unspoiled marshes and coastline while they are still “for the birds.”
Red-backed Shrike

Honey For Sale

Produced from hives that are located on the Pennypack Preserve and managed by beekeeper Nancy Schnarr.

• 1 lb. jar $7.50
• ½ lb. jar $4.00

Available in the office during business hours and in the Visitors’ Center on weekends.

Pennypack Preserve Grows to 725 Acres

On March 12, the Pennypack Preserve natural area grew to 725 acres with the purchase of five acres adjacent to the Trust’s headquarters on Edge Hill Road in Upper Moreland Township. The property, which features road frontage on Edge Hill Road and an expansive vista across Raytharn Farm in the back, is mostly wooded with a mixture of young native hardwoods and planted conifers. Over the years, the property has served as the nesting location of choice for a pair of Great Horned Owls. While the Great Horned Owls didn’t nest there this year, the woods provided winter cover for two other less-common owls: a Barred and a Long-Eared. The land contains a modest single-family residence situated near the rear property line; the Trust plans to dismantle the house and then plant native woodland trees on the building site. The Trust also has plans to extend the headquarters’ trail network into the newly acquired woodlands later this year to encourage everyone to enjoy the new acquisition.

A view onto Raytharn Farm from the back of the newly acquired property.

Crossroads Marsh Restoration Completed

During the second week of April, contractors completed the long planned and much anticipated renovation of the Crossroads Marsh at the intersection of the Paper Mill Road and Creek Road Trails in the heart of the Pennypack Preserve. The marsh, dating from 1976, is an artificial landscape feature that developed when a contractor built a low berm around a wet meadow to hold water on the 1-acre site. Originally a mosaic of open water and marsh habitats, Crossroads Marsh over the years gradually had filled in with decayed organic matter generated by the profuse growth of the weedy (but native) yellow pond-lily called spatterdock (Nuphar lutea). By 2006, the marsh had become so shallow that no open water remained and the wetland dried up completely during droughts. Thanks to financial support from donors to the Trust’s 2006 Annual Appeal and contributors to the Expanding Our Horizons capital campaign, the Trust was able to renovate the wetland, restoring open water habitat fringed by a shallow shelf of marshy vegetation. Once the work was completed, the contractor re-filled the basin in three days by pumping water from Pennypack Creek and eight Wood Ducks arrived to seek-out nesting locations even before the marsh was completely full.

The Trust’s contractor used a bucket excavator to remove the thick accumulation of organic muck from the bottom of the Crossroads Marsh.