Lehigh Gap Nature Center

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Lehigh Gap Nature Center

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Promoting conservation through environmental education, ecological research, and outdoor recreation Conservation, Education, and Research
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10/10/2026

Know your ferns! While most of our local ferns are turning yellow or brown this time of year, Christmas Fern (Polistichum acrostichoides) stays glossy green all year round!

Other tips to make the ID: 1) This fern grows in distinct, vase-like clumps or rosettes. 2) Check the base of each stem; it’s covered in brownish scruff. 3) Look closely at those little leaflets. Each one has a tiny lobe near the stem, pointing up towards the tip of the frond, like the heel of a sock. (Some folks think this makes the leaflet look like a Christmas stocking!)

Fun fact: Because this is one of the few plants on the forest floor to stay leafy in winter, some of our overwintering songbirds use it as a hideout!

📸: Lehigh Gap Nature Center

10/08/2026

The temperature may be cooling down, but our events are still going strong! Check out some of our upcoming events for October:
🍁Autumn Leaf Walk & Craft - Sat. Oct. 10th at 1pm - Join us for a stroll around LGNC to learn about the fall foliage, followed by a craft!
☕Nature-Minded Senior Sessions - Mon. Oct. 12th at 10:00am - The second Monday of every month is filled with fellowship and conversations with our community. Stop by for some coffee/tea, refreshments, and chatting with other local seniors.
🏃10k Run and 2 Mile Scamper - Sat. Oct. 24th - The 15th running of the LGNC More Or Less 10k.

Check out the calendar on our website to sign up! https://lgnc.org/events/list/

10/07/2026

Hawk Watch Bird of the Week: Common Grackle. We know, not a hawk! But this past week was cool and rainy, with not many raptors winging by. Meanwhile, our observers spotted a flock of 250 grackles on the move . . . and that’s a small group, for grackles.

They’re short-distance migrants, moving (in groups that can number in the 1,000s!) from summer breeding grounds in Canada and the northern U.S. to winter in southern states. Grackles show strong “site fidelity,“ meaning the loud birds that hung around in your backyard trees this past summer will likely be back NEXT summer.

📸: Rhododendrites (licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0)

10/04/2026

Ecology Club is BACK October 7th! Students ages 9 & up are encouraged to join us after school at 4:15pm for this month's Ecology Club meeting. This month we will be collecting native seeds from our garden and going for a hike to disperse them along our trails! Ecology Club is free to attend and no registration is required. See you there 🌼

10/03/2026

Hawk Watch Bird of the Week: Sharp-shinned Hawk! We’re seeing more of them fly by — their numbers will peak in mid-October. It can be hard to tell the difference between a Cooper’s and a sharpie when they’re close by, buzzing your backyard feeder, and it can be even harder when they’re soaring high on migration. Here are some tips from the experts:

1) Does the head seem tiny? Hard to see? Is the backlit bird just wings and a tail, making a T-shape? Sharpie! (Cooper’s hawks have bigger, blockier heads that jut past the leading edge of the wings.)

2) Check the tail. Does it seem short and squared off? Sharpie! (Coopers have longer tails with a rounded tip — though this isn’t always a perfect diagnostic.)

3) How’s it flying? Sharp-shins look kinda bouncy in flight; their wingbeats are, well, sharp! (A Cooper’s Hawk in flight looks more fluid and powerful.)

What other field marks help YOU distinguish these two?

📸: Dave Levandusky

10/02/2026

NEW! 📣📸 On your next visit, be sure to stop by our brand-new Photo Station installed between the LNE and Bobolink trail and snap a photo! Created by our Seasonal Naturalist Jenna Goff, place your phone on the mount provided, take a picture, and submit it to our database. Help us monitor the changing landscape in the Lehigh Gap and contribute to community science! See you on the trail 🥾

09/30/2026

Know Your Ferns! This one is Sensitive Fern (Onoclea sensiblis). Compare it to Bracken Fern (last week’s post) . . . this fern has a much simpler leaf structure. The pale green color is also distinctive.

So what makes this fern “sensitive?” It requires moist soil, so it wilts immediately in dry conditions. And come fall, it dies back at the first touch of frost. So look for it now in shady spots along our trails!

📸: Lehigh Gap Nature Center

09/26/2026

Hawk Watch Bird of the Week: Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) . . . our observers spotted one noteworthy bird carrying a fish. (It’s always smart to pack a snack, right?!) Late September is when Osprey migration peaks around here. The females already headed south in August, but the males and juveniles tend to linger up north a little longer.

Did you know? Ospreys were completely gone from our state as of 1979 — the causes were water pollution and habitat loss early in the century combined with nest failures due to the pesticide DDT in mid-century. But the Game Commission reintroduced these big raptors starting in the mid 1980s, and breeding populations here have grown since then.

Oh! You wanted to know where the migrating Ospreys are headed? Mostly South America — Colombia, Venezuela, and Brazil in particular. (Maybe that Osprey should have packed more than one fish!)

📸: National Park Service

09/25/2026

Experience the magic of fall in the Lehigh Gap on our Autumn Leaf Walk! 🍂🍁 Explore the Lehigh Gap Refuge while enjoying the changing fall foliage, then make and take home a fall-themed craft! This family-friendly event will fill up fast, register now at this link! https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/autumn-leaf-walk-and-craft

09/24/2026

Know your ferns! This one is Bracken Fern (Pteridium aquilinum), spotted along the Charcoal Trail at the Gap. Which makes sense, because this fern loves burned-over areas, and in the 19th century, the zone along the trail was where workers burned wood to make charcoal.

Top ID tip: Notice how the single frond pictured here seems to have branches — how it seems to be divided into a bunch of mini-fronds? And now notice that each of those mini fronds is divided into leaflets (mini-mini fronds). And those leaflets are also “divided” (kind of scalloped looking?) Only bracken fern has this complicated growth form, which biologists call “thrice pinnate.” These ferns turn yellow brown in fall, so they stand out in the landscape. Share a picture if you spot one!

📸: Lehigh Gap Nature Center

Address

8844 Paint Mill Road
Slatington, PA
18080

Telephone

+16107608889

Website

http://www.lgnc.org/

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