Drinking It In

The marshy middle basin provides a hunting spot for herons and foxes. | Photos by Christian Hunold
The East Park Reservoir provides home for birds, and in 2017, a nature center
The pied-billed grebe flying south along the Atlantic Flyway can see the water in the East Park Reservoir right away, but you, looking at the embankments

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Butterflies Count

This Silver-Spotted Skipper was one of many butterfly species that were documented during a July count around Bryn Mawr. | Photo by Jen Britton
Volunteer efforts across the region keep track of our fine fluttering friends
The flashy colors of butterflies are matched only by their names: red admirals, great spangled fritillaries, tiger swallowtails, painted ladies

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Yard Works

Photo by Christian Hunold
John Janick plans to hit the 100 species mark in his backyard this year. In 2010, after consulting with Audubon Pennsylvania, he ripped up the car pad behind his West Mount Airy house. Since then Janick has planted 70 varieties of trees, shrubs and other plants—all native to Pennsylvania—in an effort to

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Urban Naturalist: The Runabout Rodent

It took my wife Jen about five minutes to spot two rats (I missed the first) running toward an overflowing trash can near the center of Rittenhouse Square. No one else saw them. True, it was dark, but the park was filled with couples chatting on benches, bar-hoppers strolling through, a circle of twentysomethings sitting

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Urban Naturalist: One Tough Nut

You know Chestnut, the street that runs west to east between Market and Walnut? Have you ever seen a chestnut tree? Locusts, pines, spruces and walnuts are all around, even if you’ve never noticed them. But you’d be hard pressed to find a chestnut tree. They’re almost all dead.

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The White Stuff

Not everyone can get the tempeh so white and…” At Café Pendawa, a corner market on Mole and Morris in South Philly Iwan Santoso searches for the right word. He settles on “fluffy.”  Handmade by the Santoso family at their full-service restaurant Indonesia at Snyder and Bouvier streets, Café Pendawa’s grab-and-go tempeh represents the highest

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Urban Naturalist: Mussel Bound

Who’s got the best mussels in philadelphia? Sure, the Saison Dupont-bathed Ghent bivalves at Monk’s Café are divine. But by far, Philadelphia’s most interesting mussels are out in our rivers, buried in the mud.

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