Beginning by the Chamounix Mansion, The Fairmount Park Trolley Trail passes through acres of lush forest. It curves and slopes past trees that are home to birds and squirrels, trees whose trunks sprout mushrooms closer to the forest floor. After a 15-minute walk, visitors arrive at the Skew Arch Bridge, the trail’s most popular feature.
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Racks of tanks with plastic tubes feeding in and out stand against the thick stone walls of the Fairmount Water Works. Together with the microscopes and other lab equipment, it looks like a mad scientist’s underground workshop—that is, until you start reading the cheerful interpretive panels about freshwater mussel restoration. “We’re demonstrating why we care about
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"Mom,” a red-tailed hawk and Philadelphia’s most-watched bird, napped in a small London plane tree next to Sister Cities Park on a gray winter morning. On the sidewalk below, I joined Christian Hunold, associate professor of political science at Drexel University and a nature photographer. We suspected Mom had already filled her crop with rat
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Check any biology textbook for an example of evolution through natural selection, and you’re pretty much guaranteed to read about the finches of the Galapagos Islands. Some have smaller beaks ideal for eating insects. Others have sturdier beaks that crack seeds. As Charles Darwin realized when he visited the Galapagos, all are descended from colonists
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Walk out of your rowhouse and there they are, incessantly cheeping from the eaves. Outside your office they’ll peck crumbs off the sidewalk or catch a quick bath in a street puddle before the next tire rolls through. Eat lunch on a park bench, and they will watch with their little heads cocked to the
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It started with a blank wall that needed a pigeon… or a rubber duck. Tattoo artist and muralist Evan Lovett could see the wall from the window of the Philadelphia Tattoo Collective where he worked in Kensington, just below the Berks El stop.“I got really sick of staring at it, since every time I see
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It sure seems generous and altruistic to take care of a stray cat. It is, on the face of it, a noble activity. Confronting the consequences, however, isn’t easy.Birds, small mammals, butterflies—all can end up in the jaws of a domestic cat. Even well-fed domestic cats keep killing smaller creatures for fun, as cat owners
MoreI had never realized the dearth of earth tones in my wardrobe. Casey Spacht, director of Lancaster Farm Fresh Co-op and my guide for a day of foraging in Lancaster County, closed his last logistical planning email thusly: “p.s. wear camo......just playing... but would be good. greens, browns.”
MoreFairmount Park cuts down trees to make way for meadowby Cassie CumminsUsually when you hear about someone cutting down trees, it’s a bad thing. Not in this case: Fairmount Park’s Houston Meadow Reclamation and Management Plan is using the systematic removal of trees to restore a valued ecosystem, and return breeding birds to a beloved
MoreGardeners, meet your new best friend: the brown snake
Don’t freak out—it’s just a snake. It’s a really tiny snake, totally harmless. The worst it can do is poop on you.
Sure, you weren’t expecting to find a real live snake in West Philly (or North Philly, or Northwest Philly), roaming the soul patch of green that passes for
The Sibley Guide to Treeswritten and illustrated by David Allen SibleyKnopf, $39.95
Sure, you’re a tree hugger, but do you know who you’re hugging?