My Best Night Ever
The cutest fluff ball of the night!
I am soo tired and need to head to bed (it has been a long night!)! I just had to tell you about the 17 birds I caught this evening! Without a doubt this was my best night ever for the Allegany State Park Northern Saw-whet Owl banding station!! Perfect North East winds . . . . did I say perfect everything for migration?? I need to be at work at 8am tomorrow . . . . so I guess to continue going till sunrise isn’t an option!! When I closed my nets I could still hear a few Saw-whets moving around and vocalizing!! I should have stayed open!! Ugg (more…)
What an Owl Smells Like
Old picture of me teaching kids some bad habits
If you regularly follow this blog . . . . then you would know that I have an obsession with smelling the heads of woodpeckers. The woodpeckers head have a pine-musty odor to them but for some reason the smell is very pleasurable to me (ya, I am nuts – I know already)!! This evening while studying the migration of the Northern Saw-whet Owls . . . . I had a quick whiff of that odor! Bet you can’t guess what I did next?? (more…)
Surprised Big Fluff Ball Night!
Don and a Fluff Ball
Saturday evening a fellow bird bander Don Watt and his family joined me for some Saw-whet Owl banding here in Allegany State Park. He is interested in starting his own owl banding station and joined me to get a better idea on how I am catching these tiny owls. I was happy to capture a Northern Saw-whet Owl for them just before they headed home (High Five!). (more…)
Witch-hazel
Witch-hazel leaves & flowers
Witch-hazel is my favorite tree for many reasons. . . . It has always been a topic of discussion on if it is either a tree or a shrub?? My personal feeling is that this is more of a tree than a shrub but that is just my personal thought (no science behind that statement). I also love that this trees leaf is odd shaped and has some unique flowers. I can always find this tree flowering around mid October which I think is an excellent time of the year!! The greatest part of Witch-hazel is that people can extract an astringent from the bark and leaves that is used for things like; a hemorrhoid medication, shaving lotion, bug bites, acne cream and even helps with poison ivy! (more…)
Ring-necked Pheasant Release
The Release of some Ring-necked Pheasants
Today we released a few dozen Ring-necked Pheasants for an early kids hunt scheduled for this Saturday. They have such stunning colors that I had to take a few photos of them. The big release will be next week before the official start of the season. (more…)
Glow Worms and Saw-whets in that order!
Glow Worm (Lighting Bug Larva)
Last night (9th October) was another successful evening with my Northern Saw-whet Owl Banding Project here in Allegany State Park. I opened the nets just after dusk and then headed out for my first net check at 8pm. I had hoped for some owls but was more dazzled by the number of lighting bug (or firefly) larva that I found moving along the ground. (more…)
Fluff Balls
Northern Saw-whet Owl
Yeah! I finally caught not just one but two fluff balls last night (8 October 2007)! I have had the Northern Saw-whet Owl banding station open here in Allegany State Park since the 30th of September and was starting to wonder “where are they”!! This isn’t my latest dates but it was very close to it! Back in 2004 when I first started banding Saw-whets . . . . I caught my first bird on the 9th of October and was my first night “ever” trying to catch any! Then in 2005 we caught our first one on the 3rd of October and last year (2006) we caught one on the 1st of October. It has been promising to know that other local (Western New Yorkers and North Western Pennsylvanian) Saw-wheters also have been behind in catching these guys. (more…)
Happy Christopher Columbus Day
Phoebe lying Around
Holiday’s are for lying around and that is exactly what I did. I took “2” naps today and they were very much needed after being skunked once again last night (with Saw-whet Owls)!! My first bird will arrive one of these days and just maybe it will happen “tonight”?? Although, it is good to know that another fellow Western New Yorker that lives about an hour (North) from here also hasn’t caught anything (well as of this weekend)! (more…)
NYS Ornithological Association Annual Meeting
Peregrine Falcon at Iroquois
This weekend I attended the New York State Ornithological Association Annual Meeting in Batavia, New York. This meeting was hosted by the Buffalo Ornithological Society and I would like to say “thanks” for doing such an astonishing job organizing everything. You guessed it . . . . I had a LIFER this weekend!! (more…)
Just fallen asleep and . . . .
My wonderful hotel stay at 11pm in the evening!
. . . . the Holiday Inn has the fire alarms go off. Hello Mr. Manager . . . . “this is a Birding Conference . . . . we birders wake up extra early in the morning to look for the birds!” Now I am too awake to fall back to sleep, so as you can see I am helping promote the wonderful things you will find when visiting a Holiday Inn around 11pm at night. Please make this your first choice of a hotel to stay at because your safety is our number one priority! Did I mention that it was only a false alarm and couldn’t turn the alarms off till the fire trucks arrive? They sure know how to do wake up calls to the whole building! (more…)
No Owls Yet (ugg)
Foggy Morning at Red House Lake
I am not banding Saw-whet Owls this weekend because I am out of town at the New York Ornithological Association conference. It should be a good birding weekend and will post more once I return (or sooner if I get some time to write/edit during the conference).
Rose-breasted Grosbeak Crazyness
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Today I headed over to a local elementary school and did a mini banding demo for some 2nd and 3rd graders. This was a very fun day with 30+ kids who were excited about birds and I was sooo happy to catch a Rose-breasted Grosbeak for them. This is a hatch year (born this year) Rose-breasted Grosbeak who is in its basic (winter) plumage. The red/yellow on the under wing coverts is the easiest way to determine the sex of the bird. Males have red and females have the yellow on their under wing covert. I just love the berry mess on this birds bill. (more…)
Everything but Saw-whets Last Night
What an evening!
The goal of my Northern Saw-whet Owl project is catching Saw-whets! But, in order to make that happen . . . . you sometimes have a few obstacles to work around. The video above was the Barred Owl who spent a great deal of the evening vocalizing around the nets. Hello Mr. Barred Owl . . . You are not helping me!! Go fly somewhere else!! (more…)
Fall Foliage Report
Red House Lake – Allegany State Park, NY
Isn’t it fun to look back at your blog posting from last year? I had done a Fall Foliage Report where I talked about the leaves just started to change. Ugg, our leaves have been changing for a few weeks now!!
I would have to say that our (un)official report is that the leaves are around 30% changed here in Allegany State Park. I will try to do another report next week sometime.
Opening Night
White-throated Sparrow
Busy weekend but I was still able to get my Northern Saw-whet Owl nets up for the 2007 season. If you didn’t know . . . . for the months of October and November (with cooperative weather) I am out banding Northern Saw-whet Owls here in Allegany State Park. (more…)
BBBO Birdies
Golden-crowned Kinglet and my thumb
This week I have been posting pictures from our “big” banding day at Braddock Bay Bird Observatory, which is located in Rochester, NY. My first two post talked about the Wood-Warblers and the Thrush species that were banded by the BBBO Staff. Today I wanted to do a post on some of the other great birds that were banded and how the staff is able to run a station like this. (more…)
BBBO Thrush
Hermit, Gray-cheeked and Swainson’s by Young Naturalist J
My previous post showed the amazing warbler day that we had at Braddock Bay Bird Observatory on Monday. But note that the warblers were not the only family of birds that we caught!! We had just as wonderful of a day with 4 species of thrush. (more…)
BBBO Warblers!
Magnolia Warbler
So many photos of our amazing banding day at Braddock Bay Bird Observatory . . . . I just had to split the pictures into 3 different post!! The first post is about warblers. I figured that I would look up “Warbler” in Wikipedia and they state “They are mostly brownish or dull greenish in color, of small size, easier seen than heard, and harder to determine to species. To Old World birders, “warblers” are the the archetypal “LBJ” (“little brown job”).” Must have been a non birder who wrote that . . . . warblers are easy to identify when looking at all their fieldmarks!!! (more…)
Spending the day at BBBO
Braddock Bay Bird Observatory
When you find yourself completely exhausted after taking a day off from work . . . . you just know you had an awesome day!! Today, I took my banding assistant (Young Naturalist J) to our favorite migration banding station. Typically when we head off to Braddock Bay Bird Observatory, it always seems like that we had picked the day after their best day of the year (and then end up getting skunked)! But . . . . this time we hit one of their best days of the season with bird’s being caught non-stop!! Young Naturalist J had two lifers and we had a handful of birds that we don’t normally get to handle. (more…)
Pine Warbler Visit
While working on my laptop this morning . . . . I had phoebe (my cat) sitting next to me purring! She learned that if I ignore her long enough that by tapping my shoulder is enough of a reminder for me to continue petting her again (normally it works). Although our pet/owner bondage was disrupted when I had been a little too focused with the computer. As always phoebe would tap my shoulder . . . . I would ignore her and she would tap again. I said “Ok phoeobe” and as I turned around . . . . I saw this adult male Pine Warbler looking right into my window!!
Pine Warbler photo from September 2006.
Autumn Starts Tomorrow (sad face)
Morning Sunlight
Summer went way to fast for me this year and hard to believe that it is autumn already. I took these pictures just yesterday along McIntosh Stream in Allegany State Park. Doesn’t it still look like summer to you?? (more…)
Enjoying My Last Days Of Summer
I shot this long video of a Ruby-throated Hummingbird yesterday morning . . . . fully anticipating that my hummingbird friends would soon be gone. As of Tuesday 3 individuals were still coming to the feeder and then I noticed on Wednesday only 1 hummingbird was feeding. I said that if it returned on Thursday morning that I would be ready to record it (before going to work). I thought with the nice weather they would stick around for a few more days but this video clip was the last time I had a chance to see her. I looked but could never find her in the evening or anytime (morning-evening) today.
I think they have finally left the area but this does not mean that a few stragglers from up north might not be seen. But those stragglers are not my morning alarm clock. I guess this just means that summer is finally over and on Sunday fall can officially begin (if I like it or not)!!
Good-bye feathered friends, see you next Spring!
Tiger Serpent of the forest
Today we come across this yellow eyed serpent that lives in the forest. We found this guy while hiking along the North Country Trail here in Allegany State Park with a group of people (Thanks Lynn for finding him). This was my first time seeing any serpent like this before and to be honest . . . . I thought it looked just like Barney the Dinosaur (can you hear the music yet?). (more…)
Mon@rch's Nature Blog 