CULVER BROOK PRESERVE
This 95-acre former golf course offers walking trails, ponds, and meadows. It will be further landscaped and developed thanks to generous grants from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, Fish and Wildlife Division. An initial planting plan can be found here. If you are interested in helping with plantings, opportunities for memorial trees or benches or other projects to highlight the flora and fauna of the Preserve, please email us at info@gclwf.org.
WHO LIVES HERE?
Bull Frog
The Bull Frog is one of the largest common frog breeds and can be found all around North America. Being very aggressive, it will eat pretty much anything it can catch like small snakes, worms, fish, and mosquitoes.
Snapping Turtle
The Common Snapping Turtle is noted for its combative disposition when out of the water with its powerful beak-like jaws, and highly mobile head and neck. If Snappers survive to hatch and grow to adult size they can live over 100 years, laying eggs in the summer and hibernating without breathing under the ice of shallow ponds in the winter.
Yellow Monarch
The Yellow Monarch is one of the most common butterflies in the Northeast. Butterfly populations have declined in recent years due to pesticides and urbanization which is what makes our Preserves so special. To attract butterflies you need host plants for both caterpillars and butterflies in the same area, like cabbage, butterfly weed, and swamp milkweed.
Monarch Caterpillar
The Monarch Caterpillar is the larva of the butterfly with an exoskeleton and a soft body. In it’s 2-4 week lifespan, the caterpillar might consume 27,000 times it’s weight in plant material. While it can eat a good deal of your garden, without the caterpillar there will be no beautiful butterflies so plant host plants just for this purpose!
Bald Eagle
Recently an endangered species, the bald eagle is an opportunistic feeder which subsists mainly on fish, which as in this picture, it swoops down upon and snatches from the water with its talons. It builds the largest nest of any North American bird and the largest tree nests ever recorded for any animal species. Culver Lake is fortunate to have had many nesting pairs over the years.
Belted Kingfisher
The Belted Kingfisher is the most common kingfisher seen in North America. This Kingfisher makes its nest by digging into shoreline banks next to the water. Male and female Belted Kingfishers give strident, mechanical rattles in response to the slightest disturbance. When threatened they may give screams, which males sometimes combine with harsh calls.
Black Bear
Black bears, historically ranging over most of the forested regions of North America, are not the most aggressive of the bear species but can still be dangerous to humans. Bears hibernate in the winter through a reduction in metabolism concurrent with scarce food and cold weather. These cuties were likely born in early winter and remain with their mother for about 18 months.
Ruby Throated Hummingbird
Found only in the Americas, hummingbirds are distinguished by their dazzling colors, diminutive size, and speedy flight. About 28 hummingbird species are listed as endangered or critically endangered, with numerous species declining in population. This is a female ruby throated hummingbird which is very common in our area.
American Bald Eaglets
These American Bald Eaglets are probably 8 - 10 weeks old and have begun to flap their wings. They will stay with their parents for about 6 weeks after they fledge. For the next 4 years, immature eagles wander widely in search of food until they attain adult plumage and are eligible to reproduce. Eagles generally mate for life. Culver Lake eagles can be viewed on the State Forest Eagle cam.
Coyote
We learn from National Geographic that the Coyote appears often in the tales and traditions of Indigenous people—usually as a very savvy and clever beast. Modern coyotes have displayed their cleverness by
adapting to the changing American landscape. These members of the dog family are unique to North America having adapted to a multitude of habitats.
adapting to the changing American landscape. These members of the dog family are unique to North America having adapted to a multitude of habitats.
Fox Sparrow
This little fellow is likely a Fox Sparrow, part of the huge sparrow family and familiar to backyard birders. Fox Sparrows have a rich breeding song and a widespread migration range. They can live beyond 10 years and have been seen in fossil records of the north east as far back as the Pleistocene age, about 11,000 years ago.
Painted Turtle
Painted Turtles are the most common turtle in North America living in large wetland areas. This species is one of the few that is specially adapted to tolerate freezing temperatures for extended periods of time due to an antifreeze-like substance in their blood that keeps their cells from freezing. Once mature, their hard shells protect them from most predators but they are vulnerable as hatchlings, and to roads and traffic.
Green Frog
As the name suggests, the Green Frog is mostly dark green with highlights of brighter green around the head. It loves dense vegetation around the edge of a pond, such as the duckweed in which this one is hiding. When you hear a frog in the summer, nine times out of ten it is the sound of a green frog which breeds during the summer and has a very loud voice.
Pileated Woodpecker
With flashing black-and-white wings and a bright red crest, when a Pileated Woodpecker swoops by, even the most experienced birders stop in their tracks. This is the largest of North American woodpeckers and likely the inspiration for “Woody the Woodpecker”. This species occurs throughout the eastern United States living in large trees, live or dead, and feasting on carpenter ants among other insects.
CULVER BROOK PRESERVE EAST
This property on Ridge Road consists of 173 acres of wooded land. Forests like these provide critical buffers from natural disasters such as floods and storms, and they are the second biggest storehouse of carbon, helping to confront the climate crisis. There are no designated paths or parking areas at this time but the Foundation has agreed with Frankford Township to accommodate limited hunting on this property. Please see hunting rules below for more information.
WHO MIGHT LIVE HERE?
Red Fox
Red foxes have long snouts and red fur across the face, back, sides, and tail. Red foxes are about three feet long and two feet tall. Red foxes have excellent hearing. They can hear low-frequency sounds and rodents digging underground.
Groundhog
Also known as woodchucks, groundhogs spend much of their days alone, foraging for plants and grasses and digging burrows. These rodents enter their burrows to hibernate in the winter. Males poke their heads out in early February—not to predict when spring will come, but to claim their territory.
Weasel
These small carnivores are known for their hunting ability and their fearlessness in the face of man or other animals much larger than themselves is legendary.
Eastern Gray Squirrel
Eastern gray squirrels forage for nuts, seeds, buds, and flowers of trees. As winter approaches, squirrels carry their food and bury it in several locations, but they sometimes forget exactly where. That helps the environment because these buried seeds and nuts sprout and grow the following spring.
Skunk
Skunks live all over North and South America, in rural areas, suburbs, and the city. Their "musk" spray, which comes from two glands near the base of the skunk’s tail, can hit a target 12 feet away and the powerful smell can linger for days. Skunks are most active at night. They sleep in dens lined with leaves during the day. Their favorite foods include fruit and plants, plus insects, bird eggs, small rodents, and birds.
Ruffed Grouse
The dappled, grayish or reddish Ruffed Grouse is hard to see, but its drumming in the spring that sounds like an engine trying to start is common in the spring forest.
Raccoon
Raccoons live throughout the United States in woods, wetlands, suburbs, parks, cities, and anywhere there is shelter, food, and water. Predators of raccoons include the coyote, bobcat, and red fox. In captivity, where the raccoon doesn’t need to worry about finding food or evading predators, some have lived as long as 20 years.
Pheasant
Introduced to the U.S. from Asia in the 1880s, pheasants live in tall vegetation and old fields. In spring and summer, you can observe males performing calling and wing-flapping displays in open areas.
White-tailed Deer
White-tailed deer are the smallest members of the North American deer family. Their name comes from the white underside of the deer's tail, which it displays and wags when it senses danger.
Northern Cardinal
The bright red of a male Northern Cardinal is hard to miss. They are a common backyard bird attracted to most any bird feeder. The Northern Cardinal is the state bird of seven states.
Bobcat
The Bobcat is a medium-sized cat with a ruff of fur around the sides of the face. It is about twice as big as a house cat—and a lot faster. It can run at speeds up to 25 to 30 miles an hour, and is skilled at swimming.
Barred Owl
This attractive owl has deep brown eyes and brown-and-white-striped plumage. Originally a bird of the east, during the twentieth century it spread through the Pacific Northwest and southward into California. Visit forests near water and listen carefully, paying attention for the species’ barking “Who cooks for you?” call.
Wild Turkey
The bird that the pilgrims at Plymouth Rock are believed to have served at the first Thanksgiving in 1621 was once plentiful in the U.S., but human urbanization destroyed much of the wild turkey’s natural habitat and by 1977 they had all but disappeared in our area. Thanks to restoration efforts, there are now more than 21,000 wild turkeys in New Jersey.
American Goldfinch
The state bird of New Jersey, spring males are brilliant yellow and shiny black with a bit of white. To encourage goldfinches into your yard, plant native thistles and other composite plants, as well as native milkweed. Goldfinches are among the strictest vegetarians in the bird world, selecting an entirely vegetable diet and only inadvertently swallowing an occasional insect.
Mink
Known for their beautiful and soft fur, American mink have a lanky body, long tail, short legs and partially webbed toes, which make them excellent swimmers. They’re a member of the same family as otters, weasels, and skunks. They eat crayfish, frogs, fish, mice, reptiles, earthworms, and waterfowl. Like their skunk cousins, mink defend themselves by spraying a foul-smelling liquid.
Photo credits:
Moonrise by Steve Okeson; Mushrooms by Judith Nylen; Yellow Butterfly and Caterpillar by Dorothea Wefing; Bunny, Large Tortoise, Frog by Terry McQuillin; Eagle with fish, Hummingbird, Red Crested Woodpecker by Lee McQuillin; Bear w/ 2 cubs, Eagles feeding by Steve Okeson; Coyote by Terry McQuillin; Painted turtles by Wayne Groves; Goldfinch and Cardinal by Terry McQuillin.