Strawberry Hill Nature Reserve--July 25, 2014

  Strawberry Hill Nature Preserve is a private
non-profit education and conservation institution
located in the
Blue Ridge Mountains of Pennsylvania.
We hiked three trails: Nature Trail, Swamp Creek Trail
and Quarry Trail.

These groundlings I heard 1st, before I saw them.
    After our hike, I spoke with a naturalist who explained
       they may have fallen out of their nest, or were practicing their flying
 skills (or a combination of the two!).

Turkey Tail Fungus

Skunk Cabbage 

I saw something come across the trail. I looked
down and a saw a black figure slither into the
bushes. It hissed at me a few times then
continued on its' way.  

We discovered the name of the snake
at the Quarry Trail interpretative sign.

Lots of other types of snakes that live in this area.  

Quarry Trail  

This section of the Strawberry Hill property was previously used for mining purposes. A local resident, Mr. George O. Mickley, was the first to begin mining here. His family owned the quarry land from 1907 until 1965, when it was purchased by the commercial corporation, Gross Minerals Corp. This corporation strip-mined 6,000 to 10,000 tons of Phyllite annually. In the year 2000, the quarry site, including a total of 81 acres of land, was purchased from Gross Minerals Corp. by the Strawberry Hill Foundation. Since that time, the land has been reclaimed through a process of re-vegetation and soil maintenance. Plants that were reseeded included: two species of panic grass, woolgrass, white goldenrod, soft rush, purple top and grass leaved goldenrod. Phyllite is from scientific Latin and means "leaf-stone." Phyllite is a medium-gray stone, one step beyond slate in the chain of metamorphism. Whereas slate has a light sheen from tiny grains of mica, graphite, chlorite and similar minerals, phyllite fairly glitters because with further heat and pressure, the reflective grains grow more abundant and join each other. And whereas slate usually breaks in very flat sheets, phyllite tends to have a corrugated cleavage. This rock has nearly all of its original sedimentary structure erased, although some of its clay minerals persist. Further metamorphism will convert all of the clays into micas, along with quartz and feldspar. At that point, phyllite becomes schist.  
The quarry is one of the richest areas on Strawberry Hill’s property in terms of species diversity.
Source: http://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC13YX5_quarrying-times-earthcache?guid=1c0b7561-c605-41f6-98bc-5b6da47e1e7d

Water Snake

Today, there were several school groups visiting Strawberry Hill. We just spotted the deer before we met an enthusiastic group of kids on the trail.  After our lunch, we listened to a presentation with another group. The guide showed us a turtle with three legs-- its' right leg was missing and it had a small chip in its' shell near its' neck.  The cause of the turtle's injury is not known, but it may be due to frostbite or it was hit by a car.
A Black Rat snake was not taken out of its' enclosure. It's a biter. The guide explained she is one of the few people at the centre that is able to hold it. The first time she held it, it "musked" her on her arm. It took two days for the smell to disappear.