WILDLIFE at Fair Hill NRMA

The entire area of Fair Hill has been designated as an Important Bird Area of national significance by the National Audubon Society and the American Bird Conservancy.  Locating the horse park at Fair Hill would be highly detrimental to birds that use this area.
Priarie & Grassland species, such as the Bobolink, Thrush, Flycatcher, Grasshopper Sparrow, and the Eastern Meadowlark are regular breeders. In addition, some of Fair Hill's wodded areas host forest dwellers, like the rare Cerulean Warbler. Also seen at Fair Hill are the bald eagle, kingfisher and a wide variety of hawks, owls and vultures.

Rare and endangered wildlife at Fair Hill

The Bog Turtle

The bog turtle is a tiny, dark turtle with a distinct orange patch behind the ear on either side of the head. Bog turtles, one of the smallest and most secretive of North America’s turtles, measure only 7.6 to 10 cm (3.0 to 3.9 in.) long as adults.

Bog turtles inhabit calcareous (limestone) fens, sphagnum bogs, and wet, grassy pastures that are characterized by soft, muddy substrates (bottoms) and perennial groundwater seepage. Because open areas are favored for basking and nesting, vegetative succession may cause the dispersal or loss of bog turtle colonies.

Due to population declines, restricted habitat preference, habitat loss, and collecting, the bog turtle was listed as threatened in Maryland.

The bog turtle is a federally threatened species under the 1997 Endangered Species Act.

The Regal Fritillary Butterfly

As a large "orange and black" butterfly, it may be confused with the Monarch if seen from a distance.  However, the hind wings are quite different - dark above and covered with large off-white spots below.  Observed closely, the fore wings are distinctive also.  The short dark lines running crosswise to the wing veins are not seen on Monarchs.

The known range of the Regal Fritillary originally stretched from Maine to Montana and south to Oklahoma and North Carolina.  Because the caterpillars utilize the prairie species of violets, this species was never found outside tall grass prairie. Regals have almost disappeared from their former range east of the Mississippi River.  They now occur only from southern Wisconsin west to Montana and south to northeast Oklahoma.  Some relict populations occur in Pennsylvania and Maryland, but they may not last much longer. Fair Hill is one of the few places where the northern prairie grass thrives. For more details, click here: http://www.gpnc.org/regal.htm

Rare & unusual plants at Fair Hill

Numerous interesting & unusual plant species make Fair Hill NRMA their home. CLICK HERE for a list of plants documented.