These tadpoles of Northern Green Frogs (Rana clamitans melanota) are so large I orginally thought they were the tadpoles of Bull Frogs. But I asked Bernard Brown of Phillyherping and he told me it was mostly likely Green Frogs, given the pond were the photo was taken.
They look like something out of a movie – “Green Frog Tadpoles, Attack!!!”
My Shadbush began to bloom in early April and I knew that Shad were running in the Schuylkill River. The Shad live in the Atlantic Ocean and swim up the Schuylkill and Delaware River to breed. They use the Fairmount Waterworks Fish Way to move up the Schuylkill to breed.
This beautiful fish was caught in the schuylkill just minutes before. The waters of the Schuylkill River are clean enough to eat the fish. Many people, particularly the poor, fish in the river to eat.
If you scrap away a little of the bark on a Sassafras tree, the wood underneath has an orange tinge. Sassafras Tree (Sassafras albidum) is found throughout forest in Southeastern Pennsylvania. This one grows in the forest of the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education.
This American Beaver (Castor canadensis) makes its’ home in the clean and healthy Schuylkill River, that flows along the west side of the big city of Philadelphia.
The river also supports North American River Otters (Lontra canadensis). That beavers and otters make their home in a river of a major American city is a testament to the Philadelphia people and the policymakers that make the laws and do the actions to make this a green and sustainable place to live.
I was with a group of naturalists and we were so excited to see the beaver, we made a lot of noise. The beaver just slipped back into the water and swam away. The fisherman who were fishing for Shad, said that a family of beavers had their den nearby and the fisherman saw them every evening.
I am so very proud, to live in Philadelphia.
Burned parts of a tree are essentially charcoal. So, if this black spot on this tree were from a burn, black soot would come of in your hand. It doesn’t so this black spot is rot.
