Announcements &Updates!
Monarch Wonder at the Tulpehaking Nature Center
Come to the Tulphehaking Nature Center in September to learn about the lovely Monarch Butterfly. We’ll help you understand its life cycle and migration patterns, and give you advice on how you can create a monarch habitat in your garden.
Insect Festival- Saturday, Sept. 14 from 11 a.m. - 2 p.m.
Free event at the Mercer Educational Gardens (431A Federal City Road, Pennington). Bugs Galore, Bees, Butterflies, Puppet Show, Insect Olympics, Bugs in Water, Bee Dance, Carnivorous Plants, Insect Hunt in the Meadow, Q&A with Mercer County Horticulturist Margaret Pickoff
Trenton River Days Fair- Saturday, Sept. 28 from 11 a.m. - 2 p.m. @ South River Walk Park
Celebrate World Rivers Day with the Mercer County Park Commission, the Watershed Institute and D&R Greenway Land Trust. Food & music will be provided, along with free programs by REI, a wildflower planting, pop-up nature center and other nature-based interactive activities along the Delaware River for people of all outdoor comfort levels. No registration required.
Be sure to check out our upcoming September programs at the bottom of this email!
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Our Autumn program brochure is now available!
We have some old favorites planned including Saw-whet Owl Banding and Just a Hike as well as new programs like the Pole Farm History Walk and Forest Health in Our Parks.
Join us on Sept. 28 for the first Trenton River Days Fair at South River Walk Park. Together with the Watershed Institute, D&R Greenway and REI, we have been working to bring you a nature packed day of fun!
Registration for our 3rd annual Come Out & Play Camp Out will open on Sept. 1. Space is limited so don’t wait to sign up!
For more details on these and all the programs we have to offer, head on over to mercercountyparks.org and find us under the Activities & Environment tab!
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On Aug. 15 2019, the Mercer County Park Commission held its first ever BioBlitz in the Pole Farm region of Mercer Meadows. Fifteen nature enthusiasts from five different local conservation organizations participated in searching for and recording wildlife, plant, and fungi species on this balmy summer day. Representatives from Friends of Hopewell Valley Open Space (FoHVOS), Friends of Princeton Open Space (FoPOS), D&R Greenway, Sourland Conservancy, and the Mercer County Park Commission came together to share their passion of all things natural.
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After four hours of scouring the meadows and forested portions of the Pole Farm, the group had collected 670 observations of 297 individual species, comprised of 183 plant, 56 insect, 22 bird, 19 fungi, and 17 other species. The iNaturalist app provided the foundation for easy data collection and compilation. Check out our BioBlitz page and the free and easy-to-use iNaturalist app to get involved in our MCPC Biodiversity project, an ongoing natural resource inventory in our Parks.
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A BioBlitz can provide useful information for making decisions in ecological stewardship – it acts as a natural resource inventory, allows prioritization of areas of high conservation value, and can document trends in species occurrence. We hope that this will be the first of many events such as this for the Naturalist Division! A special thanks goes to our 2019 stewardship interns: Jack Dreger, Andrew Franceschini, and Cody Panek, for organizing this event as their summer capstone project.
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 As summer winds down and the days get shorter, we look back on all the programs and natural memories made throughout our beautiful parks. Summer is certainly the busiest season for our department and we’re glad that so many of you choose to spend your time with us enjoying and learning about the great outdoors.
Our nature summer camps are the most popular and well attended program we offer during the summer. More than 100 campers spent a week with us exploring the beautiful Baldpate Mountain and Mercer Lake. Every day was an adventure whether we were hiking, experimenting, or exploring. During T-shirt decorating, one child drew a road leading to a worm hole with a traffic sign labeled “nature,” he explained that every adventure in nature leads to an unknown, but amazing surprise. Our brand new camp, Anglers Adventure, at Mercer Lake was a huge success. Campers spent their days fishing and studying the finned friends of the lake, while learning about fish anatomy, biology, and aquatic habitats.
REI hosted a variety of outdoor skills workshops throughout our parks this season. Among them were How to Ride a Bike for Kids, Beginners Camping Workshop, and a Full Moon Night Hike. All were well attended and thoroughly enjoyed. One participant stated that they walk Mercer Meadows almost daily, but have never had the opportunity to explore the meadows at night. We are excited about this new partnership and look forward to the variety of programs they will bring to our parks.
Many groups from Trenton and New York took advantage of our naturalist-led summer field trips. Many of the children experienced their first ever hike and took time to explore Baldpate Mountain. Pictured here are girls from the Trenton C.Y.O. searching for butterfly evidence during our Butterfly Bonanza scavenger hunt. During the program, they learned to identify different species of butterfly as well as their habitat, life cycle, and food sources. Other groups learned to navigate the trails using maps and trail blazes, while learning about hiking safety, trail etiquette, and how to identify poison ivy.
Participants of our pontoon boat nature tours and kayak nature tours enjoyed the lake from a different perspective with views of Bald Eagles, Heron and native aquatic plants. One group even experienced a rare sighting of the largest tern species in the world, the Caspian Tern. The Naturally Friends Series at Howell Living History Farm offered visitors the opportunity to learn about beetles, butterflies, and nocturnal nightlife at the farm. During the early morning hours, many flocked over to the Fiddlers Creek Bird Banding Station for a rare up close and personal experience with a variety of migratory song bird species including Cedar Waxwings and Prairie Warblers during our Bird-in-Hand Program. Bird banders also celebrated a first time appearance of White-eyed Vireo at the station.
Thank you to everyone who participated in our Summer programs. As the seasons change so too will the flora & fauna that will be found in our parks so make sure to join us for upcoming fall fun!
Slipping into Something Spore Comfortable
Many of the parks managed by the Mercer County Park Commission support plants that have become difficult to find due to development of natural spaces. One of these plants is Cypropedium acaule, commonly known as the Pink Lady’s Slipper. You may be familiar with this plant’s relatives; it is a member of the orchid genus Cypropedium. While not listed as a threatened or endangered species federally or in New Jersey, it is noted as unusual, endangered, and/or exploitable in four states.
This plant thrives in very specific growing conditions, Pink Lady’s Slipper is tolerant of shade and moisture ranges, but requires highly acidic soil, typically in the 4-4.5 pH range. The plant is extremely likely to die outside of its natural growing conditions. Pink Lady’s Slipper often does not produce fruit and takes years to germinate, making it challenging to market for commercial production. Despite this, unscrupulous plant and seed collectors often disturb this plant when found.
Pink Lady’s Slipper’s ability to reproduce depends primarily on it’s neighboring species. Bees are lured into the flower’s pouch by bright colors and sweet scent. Once inside, bees realize there is no nectar and seek a way out. Their exit from the pouch requires the bees to deposit pollen it has collected from other flowers or to pick up the Pink Lady’s pollen to be deposited onto another flower. Bees quickly learn to avoid the siren call of the Pink Lady’s Slipper, resulting in low pollination rates.
Unlike most seeds, Pink Lady’s Slipper seeds do not have food sources stored within them to support germination. This species has a symbiotic relationship with soil fungi in the Rhizoctonia genus. When a seed and this fungus are present, threads of the fungus will break open the seed and provide nutrients to the seed that allow for germination. As the plant matures, the fungus will extract nutrients from the orchid roots. This relationship between plants and fungi is common in the orchid genus.
We are still learning how about the complex relationships between wildlife, plants, and fungi and how they support each other’s life cycles. We do not know the full impacts of disturbance on these cycles so we urge you to please enjoy these plants in their natural state and do not disturb.
Photo pulled from wiki page...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cypripedium_acaule#/media/File:Cypripedium_acaule_-_Sasata_edit1.jpg
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Pollinators on the Big Screen Sept. 20!
Movie Night ft. Dreamworks Bee Movie
Pack up the car and join us at Arm & Hammer Stadium for a drive-in movie experience! Visitors are also welcome to bring lawn chairs and blankets to enjoy outside. All children must be accompanied by an adult.
Doors for the movie will open at 6:30 p.m. The movie will begin at approximately 7:30 p.m. after sunset.
Parking and admission are free for this event. Food and drink will be available for purchase, outside food and alcohol is prohibited.
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