Bethpage State Park Ecology

Did you know that fall is the season for seed collecting? Did you know that between our multiple planted gardens and wildflowers, Bethpage State Park is nothing short of a seed bank!? In fact, our staff spends a significant amount of time in September and October collecting seeds from favorited pollinator plants, with the goal of propagating new plants for the following season. That's right, it is never too soon to be thinking about creating a habitat for next year's pollinators!   This year we wanted to share our plant knowledge with the local community by inviting two Girl Scout troops down to our Picnic area to partake in a fun seed activity!  The project - SEED BOMBS!  Seed bombs are an easy and creative way to promote seed dispersal. All you need is soil, compost, clay and your choice of seeds. Fun fact: Since we are a park with golf course materials, we actually used wet hydroseeding mulch instead of clay. It worked just as well to bond the materials together. ...

Every now and then, our golf course gardens need some tender love and care. This season, we decided to focus our attention on the "Red Eye" wildflower garden, our beautiful pollinator habitat that can be seen from #13 fairway on the Red Course.  The Red Eye blooms as early as May and continues well into October. It is perhaps one of our most unique gardens as Victor Azzeretto (our horticulturist) designed it to be an eye-catching spiral shape with a path down the middle (below).   To revamp the area, our goal was to remove stubborn invasives, amend soil where needed, and prep a new space for the reintroduction of pollinator-favorite plants (above). This kind of work often provides an opportunity to call on the local community and lucky for us George Kiesel (left) helped us do just that! George is a NYS park employee from one of our sister parks, Connetquot State Park. He dedicates his time to organizing community group events that aim at beautifying different state parks ...

It was a warm August day on fairway #8 of the Black Course.  As I was initially monitoring for Monarch butterflies, I could not help but get distracted by the array of dragonflies making rounds above me. Exciting as this is to see, I forget that this  should be no surprise; #8 of the Black Course offers resourceful landscape features  to the world of  insects....especially dragonflies!    Blue Dasher (left) and Common Whitetail (right) This is because the first and most important feature on #8 is our freshwater pond. All dragonflies need water to complete their lifecycle. Females will seek out water to oviposit (lay) over 1000 eggs under the surface. After hatching and as they develop, dragonfly nymphs will remain aquatic. This can take up to many seasons, sometimes four or five years. What is most fascinating is that these insects survive under the frozen pond throughout winters too!   Not only does our pond provide a location for dragonflies to ...

This Earth Day, our park focused the celebration on the beauty of songbirds and the nests they call home! We have hundreds of birds at Bethpage State Park, some of which we spend a great deal of time tracking, monitoring and researching. Additionally, we incorporate habitats for birds all along our golf courses; this includes creating native gardens, leaving fallen tree trunks, and installing nest boxes (right) for birds to lay eggs and raise offspring.   While wildlife habitats are the cornerstone of our environmental efforts 365 days of the year, Earth Day is the perfect time to reflect on what we do and how we can do more! One way is to provide opportunities of education and participation for the local community. This year on behalf of the Park, I organized a virtual event for Girl Scout Troop 3632! This was our second Zoom collaboration together  (click here to read about the first)   and so I was excited to teach these bright and passionate scouts about a different e...

Bethpage State Park's Black Course is home to two owl babies this year! This time the occupied nest is on #7 of the Black Course, a typical spot for our familiar nesting pair.  This comes shortly after re-vamped cones were installed (this winter) to encourage local Great Horned Owls to nest!      ~ N ests are high in the tree canopy and usually in White Pine trees.  The specific spot chosen on the Black Course is an ideal location for our owls because it serves as an intermediate area between two habitat types: a forest edge and open golf fairway. Being on this border means easy access to hunting grounds while also providing enough tree cover for protection. Peeking in with a cherry picker, staff are able to examine the nest weekly. Two eggs were found (which were laid in early February). As weeks passed, the female owl incubated her eggs while the male kept a look out and brought her food. On March 4th, staff was delighted to find two fluffy white offsprin...

     A Tufted Titmouse weathers a snowstorm.  Cardinals stay. Egrets leave. Robins nestle in holly bushes...while the movement of geese in a "V" formation, honking southward through the sky, is an image most people recognize as signs of winter! All the d iffering bird behaviors and migratory flyways...but have you ever wondered  why? Specifically, what makes certain bird species stay? What makes certain bird species go?  The simplest answer is that some birds lack the resources and coping mechanisms to withstand harsh seasons. Majority of birds are diurnal, but limited hours of sunlight does not allow for as much activity.  Winter Changes That Push Some Species to Migrate:  Harsher temperatures Shortened days  Limited roosting availability  Scarce water and food sources   A frozen pond means limited food for insectivorous birds.  Depending on the bird, it could be one of these factors or a combination of all of the above!...