UPPER BURRELL, Pa. -- Penn State New Kensington’s biologist bloggers Bill Hamilton, assistant professor of biology, and Deborah Sillman, senior instructor in biology, have posted their first observations of summer on their blog, "Ecologist's Notebook: Reflections on the Natural World of Western Pennsylvania."“Honey Bees, Millipedes and Migrant Birds” was written May 28. While western Pennsylvania awaits the summer solstice, Hamilton keeps a keen eye on the fauna and flora that herald the event.Hamilton and Sillman, along with Rob Bridges, professor of psychology at the campus, and his wife, Michele, biked along the Roaring Run trail in Apollo. The 5-mile long trail follows the Kiski River and terminates at the village of Edmon. During the bike ride, Hamilton noticed a swarm of honey bees foraging a freshly-mowed area, millipedes thriving in the cool, moist forests and fire pink flowers in full bloom.Absent from the trail were migrant bird species, such as scarlet tanager and indigo bunting, the usual indicators of the new season. The wood thrush also seems to have “gone missing.” Hamiliton believes the lack of bird sighting could be nothing more than a matter of timing.“Sometimes you just get out of phase with these birds: your time of looking just doesn’t match up with their time of activity," Hamilton wrote. “I need to shift my bird-biking trips to other times of the day. I want to hear the wild, fluting song of a wood thrush before I can really acknowledge that summer has arrived.”Summer begins officially with the solstice 12:38 p.m. June 21. It is the day with the most hours of sunlight during the whole year. The sun will rise at 5:48 a.m. and set at 8:43 p.m., giving the local denizens 15 hours and four minutes to cut grass, mulch gardens, clean gutters and waterproof decks. For the nocturnal aficionados, their time will come Dec. 21 when the winter solstice brings the longest night of the year.
Tree planting in New Kensington
Hamilton not only writes about the environment, he actively participates in renewing it. He was joined May 2 by biology students and Science Club members for another tree-planting project in the city of New Kensington. Sixteen trees, featuring a mixture of plane trees, hawthorns, oaks and ginkgo, were planted at six sites in the city: Valley Heights park, Parnassus park, Post Office parking lot, the memorial across from the Peoples Library, Industrial Boulevard, and the corner of Fifth Avenue and Ninth Street.Hamilton and his students did a similar project in October. Twelve trees, a Kentucky coffee bean and 11 honey locusts, were planted along Industrial Boulevard, which is located in the southeast section of the city.The tree-planting program was sponsored by the New Kensington Shade Tree Commission and supported by a grant from Tree Vitalize, a program funded by the Department Natural Resources. Jane Glenn of the Shade Tree Commission organized the event, and Brian Wolyniack, an urban forester with the Penn State Extension Office, was on hand to demonstrate tree-planting techniques and supervise the work.Glenn, a Lower Burrell resident, has campus connections. She is the administrative executive of three campus endowments -- Elizabeth S. Blissell Scholarship, Hazel L. Hug Scholarship and Thelma M. Clausner Scholarship -- that provide annual support to nine campus students. For the 2014-15 academic year, Evan Keener and Regina Cherish earned Blissell scholarships, Tanya Leeman, Nicholas Dimaria, Rene Hatheway and Alexander Stack received Hug scholarships, and Danielle Cicak, Jonathan Simmen and Amanda Stumme merited Clausner scholarships.Nature trails
In addition to blogging, the husband-and-wife team supervises the campus Nature Trail and the Virtual Nature Trail. The nature trail, constructed in 1985, is a half-mile loop located in the southwest section of our campus. It was refurbished in 1999. The 30th anniversary of the trail will be celebrated in the fall.The virtual trail went online in 2002. A grant from Alcoa supported the refurbishing of the trail and the building of the virtual trail. Both trails serve as environmental education resources for the campus community and local school districts.
To view Hamilton's blogs and to make a comment, visit http://sites.psu.edu/ecologistsnotebook/2015/01/23/signs-of-winter-8-bees/.For more about the virtual trail, visit http://www.psu.edu/dept/nkbiology/naturetrail/.
For more about the Rock Furnace and Roaring Run trails, visit http://roaringrun.org/.