RECENT EVENTS

FALL FOLIAGE WALK
Sunday, October 14, 2018

Despite our best intentions, the new trail in Cook rebuilt by Eagle Scout Marc Gambino and his team was far too wet for an enjoyable walk, so we explored the Mapleton Preserve instead. As fall foliage color also did not cooperate with our plans, our focus turned to fungi! Our group's sharp eyes noticed many fantastically different types of mushrooms that walk leader Karen Linder helped identify. We learned about their structures, life cycles, reproduction methods, and toxicity.







WILDLIFE AMBASSADORS DEMONSTRATION
Sunday, September 16th, 2018



Jane Rakos-Yates gave an excellent program on wildlife and the work of the Mercer County Wildlife Center

An enthusiastic crowd gathered to meet three permanent residents from the Mercer County Wildlife Center, which exists to rehabilitate ill, injured or displaced wildlife, and release them back into their natural habitats. The animals that visited us are, for various reasons, not releasable back into the wild, but serve as ambassadors for their wild counterparts. Our wildlife guests were a saw-whet owl, an Eastern striped skunk, and a red-tail hawk (read his story here): Red-tail Hawk

Eastern striped skunk        and Red-tail hawk

The Center is a state and federally licensed facility that cares for injured, ill and displaced native wildlife. Last year Mercer County Wildlife Center treated 2,472 animals of nearly 130 different species. If you have found a wild animal needing help, please call the Wildlife Center at (609) 303-0552. The animal may not actually need assistance, and removing it from its environment may cause more harm. They will help you decide whether the animal needs care and, if necessary, ask you to bring it to the Center. Learn about co-existing with wildlife, and lots more about the Wildlife Center at Wildlife Center Friends

KGA ANNUAL MEETING AND PROGRAM ON TICKS AND TICK-BORNE DISEASES WITH DR. ALVARO TOLEDO
Thursday, May 10, 2018



Dr. Alvaro Toledo is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Entomology at Rutgers. His primary focus is to establish a research program on Lyme disease, ticks and the vector-borne pathogens at the Center for Vector Biology. Ticks are the most important vectors for infectious diseases in the northern hemisphere, and second after mosquitoes worldwide. Ticks are parasites that feed on the blood of different vertebrate species. Typically, ticks have 4 stages (egg, larvae, nymph and adult) that feed on three different hosts in a two-year life cycle. Ticks can transmit different diseases, including Lyme disease, Human granulocytic anaplasmosis and Babesisis among others. The causative agent of Lyme disease, Borrelia burgdorferi, is a spirochete and is transmitted to humans through the bite of infected ticks (this is the only way one can get Lyme disease). The safest way to remove ticks is by grasping and pulling them out with tweezers, as close to the skin as possible. Other methods (vaseline, nail polish remover, matches) may stress the tick, and make it more likely that you could be infected!

Dr. Toledo has kindly provided to KGA a copy of his fascinating and informative presentation, which may be viewed here: Dr. Toledo's Tick Talk

EARTH DAY CLEANUPS
Saturday, April 21, 2018

Our thanks to the many people who joined us to celebrate Earth Day by removing garbage from our open spaces, woods, and roadsides. The cleanup of Laurel Avenue and the environs of Rockingham Historic Site was ably undertaken by the morning crew.

In the afternoon, volunteers collected litter in areas adjacent to Mapleton Road, Division Street, Heathcote Road, Ridge Road, Greenwood Avenue, and Railroad Avenue. South Brunswick Girl Scout Troop 82416 amassed an eye-popping motherlode of trash from within the Mapleton Preserve, and made some unusual finds.





CHRISTMAS BIRD COUNT
Sunday, December 17, 2017



Leader Karen Linder had this report:
Birds were few, but the grasses and winter weeds in the seedbeds were lovely. Things livened up when the sun came out amd it warmed up a bit. Six bluebirds shining 15 feet away on the ground was a nice reward for the dry birding. Then messes of yellow rumps, cedar waxwings. We saw a fox, six deer, raccoon tracks, possible possum tracks, and some wonderful tiny bird tracks. Raptors were few--a red tail and the Barclay Square Coopers Hawk. One vulture. Four great blue herons, and a cormorant. No spectacular masses or notable numbers but a rewarding and lovely day, with 35 species total. The neatest view was of a chickadee, popping in and out of a cavity that was just his size.

2017 Christmas Bird Count Results, Kingston segment

"A WALK THROUGH KINGSTON'S RAILROAD HISTORY" Sunday, October 22, 2017 This year's walk, co-sponsored by the Kingston Historical Society and led by railroad historian John Kilbride, did not go quite as we planned! We headed out along the former Camden & Amboy Railroad right-of-way toward Railroad Avenue, crossed Ridge Road onto the Rail Trail, and walked as far as the turn to the Cook bridge. Shortly thereafter, our guide experienced a spell which resulted in his being whisked away in an ambulance! We are grateful to trustee Karen Linder for grabbing the baton to finish with a more traditional nature walk. A good number of participants carried on, roughly following the former Kingston Branch/Rocky Hill Railroad right-of-way to end at the Kingston Lock-tender’s House, where model builder Paul Kayne talked about and demonstrated his models of the Kingston lock and the "A" frame bridge (once at Kingston). The good news is that John Kilbride had fully recovered by the next day, and to finish what he started, recorded this virtual tour with illustrations, lasting about sixteen minutes. A Walk through Kingston's Railroad History PIPELINE POSITION Along with hundreds of other organizations, KGA has signed on to a letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission about its policies on certification of natural gas pipelines. The full text of the letter may be read here: FERC Letter January 2018 Newsletter   Kingston History   Photos   Maps   Our Mission   Join Us Cook Natural Area   Princeton Nursery Lands   Tree Registry Links   Reading Room   Contact Us