Do you moo?
Been busy with committee meetings, working on a power point slideshow and don’t forget the Kenn Kaufman talk tomorrow night at the Roger Tory Peterson Institute. I promise to catch up with everyone’s photostream and blogs here soon.
After our Committee Meeting this eveing; I heard an Eastern Screech Owl out in the parking lot and called everyone over. I was able to get the owl to do a fly by in the overhead lights and then return vocalizing so that everyone could hear it. Was fun hearing/seeing the Screech Owls again.
More good news:
Yeah!! Got my Moo Cards in the mail today!! If you have no idea what I am talking about, go to: http://www.moo.com/flickr/.
Early night in bed!! Yeah!!
Grebe Update
Picture taken two days ago at the released
Yesterday, while heading into town; I checked two times and didn’t see the Red-necked Grebe anywhere along the Allegheny River. Although I did see many ducks swimming around like the Common Merganser, Black Duck, Mallard, Canada Goose, Common Goldeneye and a Long-tailed Ducks. It was very possible that the Red-necked Grebe was down stream (where I didn’t have access to look). (more…)
Grounded with no where to go!!
This morning a fellow employee came into the office saying “Tom, we have an injured bird in the snow!!” He told me how “a bird watcher found this bird and asked if he would go get some help”. I agreed to help out and while looking for a box; I started asking questions like “how big was it?”, “what was it doing” etc.. I quickly realized that the bird being described was probably a grebe species. I went down the hall and asked “Randy” a fellow naturalist to give me a hand with the bird. (more…)
-2.9° to 42.4°F in 36 hours
Over the past 36 hours we have had a temperature change 45.3° degrees! To put that into perspective, if we had a low temperature of 55°F and had the same temperature change within 36 hours; we would be looking at it being 100°F outside!! Isn’t that crazy?
Here is my GOOD / BAD thoughts regarding this temperature changes.
| Spring is getting closer | Very muddy and ugly outside |
| Things are finally starting to melt | Soon will have flooding |
| More time outside | Treadmill gets dusty |
| Take more pictures | Less time to watch Ellen |
| Furnace doesn’t run as long | House in generally colder |
| Cats don’t lay on furnace vents as much | Cats are laying on me more |
| No more shoveling | Will probably snow again |
This evening I went for a quick walk around Red House Lake. I hoped to try and capture a bunch of pictures but the rain just made it too dark (and kinglets were too high up in the trees). Although taken with high ISO, there were 3 American Robins feeding on some berries. This was my only opportunity for a photo.
HAPPY FAT TUESDAY EVERYONE!
If you didn’t know…
…… what an owl or duck sounded like!!
My nephew will tell you!
Adding another post (video) tonight since flickr is all goofy!
Presidents Day Along the River
Ducks have finally arrived on the Allegheny River after the freezing of Lake Erie. In most areas where the river was open you could find some species of duck swimming. Some of these species included:
Canada Goose
Mallard
American Black Duck
Common Merganser
Hooded Merganser
Bufflehead
and….
…. these Common Goldeneye.
Mums Cardinals
These Cardinals teased me at my parent’s house and I just had to grab my camera from the truck. (more…)
Bird Feeders and Sleeping Birds
Yesterday I started feeding the birds again after the feral cat took the cardinal a few weeks ago. Rumors have it that the cat was seen about a mile + away from my house. I hope it lost some interested with my empty feeder and gets lost in the deep woods. I will keep my eye open for any cat tracks and if found again, I will stop feeding for a second time. I enjoyed seeing my feathered friends again during my lunch break. I was amazed that chickadees returned within minutes of placing the feeder back in its spot on the tree.
Bear Safty Education
Recently the park obtained a large, male, black bear from the Department of Environmental Conservation. The bear was killed out of season by a deer hunter who clamed that it attacked him. It was donated to the park for educational purposes. A taxidermist mounted the head and front paws, and prepared the skull. These are materials the park naturalists will use for the Bear Safety program. Bear Safety was added to the list of program offerings in an effort to educate campers to the dangers of feeding and getting close to bears. Bears in the park are used to people, and they seem tame. Even so, they are still potentially dangerous wild animals.
The right side of the skull of a big male black bear. The canine teeth (fangs) are normal. (more…)
Chickadee
March 21, 1858 Standing by the mud-hole in the swamp, I hear the pleasant phebe note of the chickadee. It is, methinks, the most of a wilderness note of any yet. It is peculiarly interesting that this, which is one of our winter birds also, should have a note with which to welcome to spring.
Henry David Thoreau – THOREAU ON BIRDS
Button Nose
I am doing everything today but my laundry, dishes and vacuuming. But I will have to get it all done sometime tonight (so doing my post now).
Roger Tory Peterson Institute has a blog
The Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History has just taken a big step into the blog world. I was lucky to watch the development of this blog over the past few months and proud for the opportunity to announce this to my nature blogging friends!! So be sure to add this site to your blog roll (or RSS feed) or you might miss something essential to the study of nature!
If you’re not familiar with the Roger Tory Peterson Institute (RTPI), they have been named in honor of America’s preeminent naturalist of the twentieth century (Roger Tory Peterson)!! The Institute is based in Jamestown, NY which is also the birthplace of Dr. Peterson (and just around the corner from where I live). To hear more about the many programs, exhibits, special events or even their numerous collections, visit the blog at http://www.rtpi.org .
Can-Am Dog Sled Race in Allegany State Park
Today the Canadian-American Dog Sledders had one of their annual dog sled races here in Allegany State Park, NY. It is so much fun watching the team of dogs work together in reaching the finish line. Below are some photos from the day and then a video clip as requested.
Skiing and Snowboarding
Today we had a heat wave with temperatures in the 20’s F and an additional 3-4 inches of powder on the ground. Something just gave me the urge to head out and have some fun this evening! After work I quickly fed the kitties, watched Ellen and pulled out my skiing equipment. I was successful in making it out on the hill within an hour’s time. The tracks were perfect in every way and quickly changed into my skiing boots!! This is the first I have gone cross country skiing since the 2005 season!! Last year we never had enough snow for good tracks and this years conditions became good once it was extremely cold (and I became a wimp and didn’t go)!!
The sounds of the two skis clapping against the snow are true sounds of happiness! I always love an adventure so 75% of the time I do this in the pitch dark!! Lucky I had my headlamp with me and know the trails extremely well!! Did I mention how nice it was getting out on the trails again?? I headed home after being tired from the wonderful workout. Lucky there was a little milk left in my fridge so that I could make some hot chocolate and relax with my laptop to write this posting.
I also wanted to include this video clip from last weekends snowboarding adventure with my banding assistants!! Young naturalist J (snowboarder) and his father (skier) were in this clip while young naturalist C took this 5 minute clip with their new camera!! Yep, I said 5 minute clip but I did edited it down to only be 30 seconds long (where you can also see the nature nerd in the gray jacket hogging the camera time)!!
It should be a great post tomorrow because I am heading over to watch the Can-Am Dog-sled Races over on the Quaker Side of Allegany State Park!!
Searching for Food!
I woke up this morning to find that the White-tailed Deer have been playing in the snow again!
I call these snow deer angels
10,000 Views
Hey, I just hit 10,000 views here on Mon@rch’s Nature Blog! At the same time everyone’s favorite libriarian Jennimi is back to view number 1!! She just started hosting her own blog site at http://www.jennimi.com/ and needs to get her numbers back up again! Drop by and say hello.
Red-tailed Hawk Feeding on its Prey
I get calls all the time about a hawk that just visited someone’s feeder and they would like to know what kind of hawk is it?? Majority of the time the visitor is an Accipiter species like the Sharp-shinned Hawk or even the Cooper’s Hawk. The Accipiters have longer-tails and shorter-wings which allow them to chase the little birdies through the trees and shrubs. On occasions I have heard about Red-tailed Hawk stalking a feeder. Unlike the Accipiters who hunt by surprise, the Red-tailed Hawks will wait for their prey to come out in the open. The Buteos (which is the genus of the Red-tailed Hawk) have a shorter-tail and longer-wings which will allow them to soaring high up in the sky. They are also known to sit tight on a branch looking for any kind of movement and quickly swoop down on their prey when they are not looking.
Today one of my co-workers yelled down the hall that a Red-tailed Hawk just caught something at the feeder! Quickly I grabbed my camera and ran down the hall to see what happened. I captured a few shots (was a good distance away, sorry about the quality of the photos) and I was amazed how quickly it devoured this small critter. I feel confident that this hawk captured a small mammal due to not finding any feathers (most birds pluck the feathers away) and then closely examination the prey in the photographs. These small mammals could include meadow voles, mice, or even squirrels that might be hiding around the feeder. I have heard stories about how they witnessed a Red-tailed Hawk chasing a squirrel around a tree and then came within inches of actually catching it.
Obviously when a Red-tailed Hawk captures that squirrel the hawk needs to kill its prey as quickly as possible. If they fail to do so, the squirrel could bite the hawks toes and try to force it to let it go. This picture above shows a dead Red-tailed Hawk that was recently brought into the office. After closely inspecting it, we realized that it had numerous bite marks on its feet. Although this bird probably passed away from a vehicle strike, there was always a chance that it could have gotten an infection in its toes and then increased it chances of dieing from starvation (for not being able to use its feet properly).
Fun Day With Naturalist Buddy
I spent a lovely day with Jamestown Audubon Naturalist and Nature Photographer Jen S. here in Allegany State Park today. I am so glad that she suggested that I take some time off from work to enjoy some needed fresh air!! We didn’t go cross-country skiing as planned (I know that I keep on getting out of skiing) but we did hike along some of our snowmobile trails which gave us some great photographic opportunities. The temperatures didn’t feel bad with the sun out but we did still dressed in layers.
Jen captured a photo of me checking out this moth chrysalis. Jen – thanks for giving me permission to use this picture of me!
Jen photographing the texture of this Birch
We also enjoyed checking out the frozen Bridal Falls
Getting over the winter blues!
Seems like there has been all kinds of talk about the fidget temperatures over the past few days and the weather service isn’t expecting any changes till next week sometime. After helping my blogging buddy “Nature Woman” with her video clip; I just knew this 5 second clip would be a perfect reminder that our snow white castle will soon become green again with some sights and sounds of spring.
Here is a video clip of an American Beaver feeding on some Raspberry species and what sounds like a Yellow Warbler singing (and Red-eyed Vireo) in the background. If you listen closely you can even hear this beaver chewing (I am a nature nerd and find that cool). The ear tag was placed on this Beaver as part of a many long term studies by SUNY ESF Forestry students (wish I knew more about the study).
Ok, now back to the real world of -0 F air temperatures and -20 F windchill temperatures! Tomorrow heading out with another Naturalist from Jamestown Audubon to do some Cross-country Skiing on the Art Roscoe Cross-country Skiing trail system here in Allegany State Park!! You can be sure this video will be in the back of my mind once I can’t feel my toes anymore! Please be sure to dress warm everyone!!
Coldest day of the year!
Today was the coldest day of the year with a low temperature of -3.1F and a high of 14.7F. It is amazing how just a month ago I was discussing how unusual this warm winter has been. Now I am discussing how cold it is!! I have never seen so many weather advisories posted on my cell phone as I have in the past 36 hours. Snow just north of me has been getting dumped on by lake effect snow with whiteout conditions.
Of course the sun finally came out this morning and I did make an attempt to head outside to take a few pictures. I heard on the radio that the wind-chill temperatures were estimated to be around -15F and it surely did feel that cold!! With very few critters observed, I found myself only taking pictures of my snowshoes and then quickly headed back to the truck to stay warm!! Yesterday was equally as cold while snowboarding at one of the local ski resorts. Every few runs we needed to head inside for a short time to reduce our chances of frostbite (especially with the kids). But did have a wonderful day with everyone, thanks AW for the taking care of us!!
Groundhogs Day
To all my Flickr and Blogging friends; I Allegany Tom on the 2nd of February 2007 predict that spring will come early this year! Sorry everyone, I had to get that out of me!! BTW: I heard on the morning news that Punxsutawney Phil did not see his shadow this morning and also predicting an early spring. I have also heard by the weatherman that this summer is expected to be very hot and muggy one. I can only hope that we don’t get as much rain as we did last year (never seemed to end).
You might wonder why Groundhogs Day is so special to so many people! It started from an old German superstition that if a hibernating animal can cast its shadow on February 2nd that winter will last another six weeks. But, if no shadow is seen, the legend says spring will be early that year. You might ask why is this holiday so special to me?? Well, I consider this extraordinary day to be my official first day of spring! This is when we really start to notice more birds singing, displaying and pairs beginning to connecting together. I find this years Groundhogs Day to be extra unique because it falls on a full moon. After I get my taxes done, maybe I can get out doing some night time cross-country skiing this evening! I will do my best to take some pictures for everyone!!
PS: if you missed it, Allegany Toms prediction was accurate after see his shadow last year!
Groundhogs Day Eve
This is worse than Christmas; how does one prepare for the night before Ground Hogs Day which also falls on a Full Moon?
Mon@rch's Nature Blog 