80th Anniversary Picnic

June 18, 2022

Mingo Park 10:00 am – 4:00 pm

Directions:  Travel PA-43 south (toll road) to Exit 44 for PA-136/Eighty Four/Monongahela. Turn right at the end of the ramp for PA-136 west. Travel PA-136 for 2.2 miles to make a right onto Chapel Hill Rd. At the bottom of the hill, turn left onto Mingo Creek Road and continue until you reach the Ebenezer Covered Bridge on your left. Drive through the bridge and make a right into the parking lot for Shelter 4.  For those who enter the park from PA-88 South and Little Mingo Road, turn left at the park sign onto Mingo Creek Road and continue on Mingo Creek Road through the park until you reach the Ebenezer Bridge on your left which you will go through and then make a right into the parking lot for Shelter 4.

Ebenezer Bridge Coordinates:  (40.1920729, -80.0403392)

We will do a nature hike in the morning and come back to the shelter around 12:30 for lunch. The club will provide the meat course, paper products, condiments and a cake. Please bring a side dish.

RSVP by June 4 to diannem15237@aol.com so we know how much food to buy.

September, 2021 Meeting

14 members attended our wine/cheese social to kick off the new club year. Since attendance at our meetings has been steadily declining because of Covid and an aging membership, it was decided to stop holding meetings and concentrate on field trips, an annual picnic and keeping our website updated. It was voted to send a $300 contribution to Fern Hollow Nature Center for their support over the years. Dues will NOT be collected until further notice.

March 12, 2020 Meeting

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John Canning presented “Riverview Park & Early Years of Wissahickon Hollow and Nature Club”.
John brought his “North Side” friends, Nancy- the Ranger at Riverview Park – and Ed. He had a dvd of old photos from the 1800’s which showed the beauty of the Allegheny Commons Park and the buildings of Old Allegheny City.

Riverview Park was created for the city folk to have a place to get away into nature. It was situated on the trolley line, and many neighborhoods were able to easily access it.

Riverview once had a zoo and a swimming pool. John spent his childhood playing in Riverview’s creeks and going to Summer Camp at the Wissahickon cabin, which was built in 1913. When the zoo closed, the nature cabin housed some live animals, such as snakes, frogs and a opossum.

Our Wissahickon Nature Club had its inception in 1941 at Riverview Park and took its name from the creek and cabin of the same name, where it held its meetings. When the cabin burned down, meetings were moved to other venues and today we meet at Fern Hollow Nature Center.

John shares a a laugh with Mark and Norm.
John attempts to use the DVD player at Fern Hollow Nature Center
19 members and guest attended the meeting.
Ryan, Pat and Yasmeen

Meeting December 12, 2019

Kate St. John presented Peregrine Falcons – A Success Story.

Kate has been watching peregrines since the 90’s. She explained the history of Peregrines in PA and the story of their successful reintroduction. She told the family histories of Dorothy, Hope and Morela and covered some of the other breeding pairs in our area.

22 members prepare to enjoy Kate’s program.

This was our annual Christmas Cookie party. Members brought cookies, ate cookies, took cookies home!

Kim likes the hot apple cider
So does Amanda
Kathy and Loree
A snowy Christmas favor
Thanks to Monica for making our annual Christmas favors.

We will take our annual winter break January and February 2020 .

November 14, 2019 Meeting

Donna Foyle presented Introduced and Endemic Birds from Three Hawaiian Islands. Even from a young age, Donna was fascinated with birds. She got her first camera at age 7 and the rest is history. Donna was on a bird tour in February with three other birder friends. Her photos were fantastic of beautiful introduced birds and also a few natives. Many birds are threatened because of introduced predators, ie rats and disease carrying mosquitoes. One albatross that she photographed had a leg band. She was able to trace the number to find out that it was probably seven years old, sex undetermined.

Monica introduced our speaker

October, 2019 Meeting

Mike Fialkovich presented “Birds and Nature in Southern Texas”.

In November, 2018, Mike joined an Audubon Society of W. Pennsylvania tour to the Lower Rio Grande Valley in Texas to see the area’s famed birds, Mike shared his photographs of the birds, other wildlife and plants that the group experienced during the trip.

Mike, our speaker
Su, the bionic women!
Kathy, Monica, Don and Bob
John and Kim
Norm and Judy
Pat and new member, Jasmine.

Trip Report Jennings Prairie 7/26/19

Kate, Melissa, Dick, Kathy, Ryan, Bob and Henry the beagle.

Our seven members were rewarded with clear blue skies, low humidity and high 70’s temperatures. We saw 79 species of flowers in bloom, fresh beaver signs, birds, butterflies, moth, dragonflies and mushrooms.

See the list here:

Jennings Prairie
Six acres are being cleared to enlarge the space for the rattlesnakes
See that bird?
Small flowered fringed purple orchid

Shollard’s Wetland Field Trip

cattails

Friday, June 28, 2019 at 10:00 am. Leader: Dianne and Bob Machesney

(H) 412-366-7869 (C) 412-523-0368

Directions:
79 North to route 488 exit- Portersville. Left at the exit to rte. 19.Take rte 19 north 13 miles make right on Black Road. Pass the corn silos. At bottom of hill is 4 way intersection. Turn left on Nelson rd .About 1/2 mile turn right onto #2 Mine Rd. Pass swamps on either side of road. At the rise in the road turn right into gravel/grass parking lot, where we will meet. Just past the parking lot is the railroad grade on the left that goes thru Shollards wetland where we will be walking.  The gated road in the parking lot goes back to Black Swamp and many ponds.

Shollards parking lot GPS coordinates:

N41.11441 —W80.19218   Elevation 1233 feet above sea level. 

No facilities here. Pack a lunch and a chair .

May 9, 2019 Meeting

Ryan Tomazin presented Holistic Birding: Seeing Without Seeing, Hearing Without Hearing. The slideshow and audio focused on trying to deepen our senses beyond the obvious, for when birds don’t behave and sing nicely in full view. The theories draw upon Ryan’s personal experiences with our eclectic feathered brethren. He has deliberately blurred out his chosen picture in order to punctuate his presentation.

This was our last meeting of the season. Next meeting September 12th. See you on the trail.