A New Resident!

In May, the staff reported someone (kids?) was filling little Bathgate stream with twigs and sticks, which was causing the water to back up. They removed it two days in a row -- only to find it returned every morning!

On the third day, we removed a large sapling and discovered the tell-tale marks of a beaver chew on the end of the sapling. A BEAVER?! We have no record of beavers in the marsh area at all, only farther downstream in Spring Creek.

This was VERY exciting and we've been watching for the past month as this industrious beaver creates a dam of twigs and sticks gathered (not all chewed) from the marsh, plus mud, watercress, leaves, corn husks (??), and other items.

The construction is next to the boardwalk, easily viewed by visitors, and a great educational teaching tool for staff and visitors! Nature center staff are monitoring the impact the dam has on the upstream area, but since its mostly meadow area there, the impact has been low so far.

Two neighbors have reported seeing the beaver, a mostly nocturnal animal. Since beavers are also very shy, we hope to keep human/dog/beaver interactions to a minimum.

If you visit the marsh at dusk, move quietly on the boardwalk to the place where Bathgate stream goes under the boardwalk and look to the right. Please never disturb wild animals, just observe.

Pictures are welcome! Here is one taken early in the construction (above). Please click the word BEAVER above (or click here) for the link to a beaver info page. They are fascinating creatures!

Another animal that enjoys the marsh can be viewed in the second photo!

This is a Northern Water Snake, sometimes mistaken as a Copperhead or Cottonmouth, but not poisonous. (Its always best not to handle wild snakes, just observe).

Black Crowned Night Heron at MMNC

Hello Readers!

Wow, has it been a long time since I added to our blog! We've been too busy with spring programs and preparing for Spring to do much blogging, but here are some great photos I want to share with you!

In April, the new Spring Staff members were spending time on the boardwalk preparing for school groups when they noticed a large bird in a tree near Bathgate Springs. We were gawking and looking when a friendly couple came along with binos and a camera.

Lucky for us, because what we were seeing was a Black Crowned Night Heron - an endangered species in PA!

It stayed for about four days, to the excitement of the birding community, then moved on.

Winter Scenes

Special thank you to Dr. Robert Brooks, who provided these amazing photos from a winter walk through MMNC on Sunday, Jan 18th!

All photos: Robert P. Brooks Images

MMNC Update!

Hello Readers!

My goal is to update the blog every Friday, so in considering an update for today, I thought it would be nice to update you on some of the exciting things going on at MMNC:

~ The MMNC Advisory Committee has formed a "Building Subcommittee" to review the plans for the proposed Spring Creek Education Building and keep this project moving forward! On Wednesday, the subcommittee met with the architect and we are all feeling very excited and positive about this project!

~ The Building Fund Campaign is still ongoing! We continue to contact local legislators for support in obtaining the state's funding release ($1.25 million was pledged to the center in 2004). So far the campaign has raised $1,039,655 locally and plans to proceed with Phase One of the Spring Creek Education Building in 2009. But in order to do Phase Two, we need additional support and the release of the state funding, so please help if you can!

~ Program registrations for the Winter/Spring Programs began in January and is ongoing! Centre Region Parks & Recreation has great Winter/Spring Programs and you can now register online! Check it out!

~ MMNC will very soon be advertising upcoming employment positions, so please watch the Help Wanted section on the CRPR website or the MMNC Employment & Volunteer page.

~ Scheduling for school group programs for Spring 2009 has begun! I met with SCASD this week to schedule their Kindergarten and Primary trips for Spring, and had the opportunity to meet with elementary educators in the Bald Eagle Area School District to share information about attending MMNC program. Next week, I will meet with Bellefonte educators as well! All groups - small and large - are welcome. Please check out out the Group Program information!

~ I had the pleasure of participating in the Bellefonte Elementary School RIF (Reading is Fundamental) program this past Tuesday. Throughout the day, a total of 400 kids came through the auditorium and participated in 10-minute programs with me, before picking out a free RIF book to take home. We talked about the nature center, looked at a bear skull, talked about skunks and beavers, looked at Native American artifacts, and touched the snake skin. Kids who had attended programs at MMNC in the Fall or last Spring got some quiz questions from me -- and they did great! I was delighted to see how much they had learned and remembered!

While MMNC is under a blanket of snow right now, we are busy as can be getting ready for the upcoming program season. Please visit the website and join us for programs!

Visitor at MMNC: Castor Canadensis

Happy New Year!

I am very excited to share these photos with you all. A marsh walker spotted a tree near the marsh which appears to be chewed by a beaver!

This is especially exciting because beavers are generally not present at Millbrook Marsh.

I have been told in the past that beavers are not common in the marsh area because it is lacking the food source they prefer and the water is not very deep.

Beavers do live farther downstream in Spring Creek and one very large beaver was reported hit by a car on College Avenue, near the College Township Building, several years ago.

So - what does this mean!?

Visitors often think they see beavers in the marsh, but we actually have several families of muskrats. So far, this has turned out to be what visitors are spotting.

In this case, there is little doubt that a beaver chewed this tree. Dr. Brooks, who represents the Cooperative Wetlands Center on the MMNC Advisory Committee and is our go-to-guy with Wetlands questions, tells me that beavers are usually just "passing through" the marsh, but that evidence has been seen there in the past.

Most likely, this was a juvenile beaver who is passing through the area.

Beavers can cause changes, so the MMNC staff will be monitoring any other beaver activity. Beavers, as you know, can dam up waterways, which would change the ecology of the marsh streams and the areas that flood. One solution, if a dam is created, is to install "Beaver Pipes", which allow the water to still flow through the beaver dam.

In the meantime, the prospect of being able to add education about beavers and beaver dams to our educational curriculum is very exciting! :) (We also have a dried beaver foot in the barn, on display, but it did not come from the marsh!)

If you are interested in learning more about beavers, as I am, Enature.com has some great info:

BEAVER

Thanks for reading today! We'll keep you posted.

Photos from the Historic Harvest Festival

Here are some great photos from the Historic Harvest Festival!

Many thanks for the PSU RPTM students from the Event Planning class who put so much time and effort into making this event a success!

Daria (above), one the PSU planners, holds Nadia - a Flemish Giant Rabbit! These rabbits have been a main attraction at MMNC events for years. Special thanks to Joe Jovinelly for bringing his "kids" (rabbits) to visit us!

Below, a young visitor checks out Nadia... looks like she is checking him out too!

Amy (below), a student from PSU RPTM Cultural Interpretation class, prepared and presented a display for visitors on the uses of corn husks in colonial times. The class had six students who all researched and prepared cultural displays related to the topic of corn. Their period costumes were great too!

Visitors also learned about Alpacas from Bald Eagle Alpaca Farms. They were very soft and fuzzy to touch!

Photo of the Month

Readers of the Town & Gown's November 2008 Issue may have seen the beautiful photo of the Millbrook Marsh Nature Center boardwalk, taken by Cristiane Dornbusch. It is a breath-taking photo of an early morning scene at the marsh.

Look at these photos and more on Cristiane's website: www.crisdornbusch.com

(Special thanks to Cristiane, who gave us permission to use her website and said she thinks Millbrook is a wonderful place!)