At the Lean-To
I tried posting a picture on flickr but wasn’t successful! So, I wanted to give a whats-up post via my cell phone to see if i can get it working! I am very happy having cellphone reception as we are watching the weather moving in tonight via radar! Ugg! Well, taking a ton of pictures and we have a Barred Owl vocalizing as I am trying to type on this tiny phone! I am off to bed an will post again once I get home! (more…)
OLD GROWTH TREES AND CAMPFIRE
Purple Headed Sneezeweed (all-time fave flower)
Yesterday I took a family that I have known for a very long time into the Big Basin area (old growth forest) of Allegany State Park. We had a wonderful time looking at the many old trees and then a few other unexpected treasures. We have an ongoing joke about how whenever I take them for a walk we somehow end up off trail and “sort of” get lost! I couldn’t let them down this year so everywhere we hiked “it was” off trail!! (more…)
CLDC END YEAR REPORT
Eastern Towhee
Here is my end of the year report for the CLDC MAPS (Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship) 2007 season. I have not entered all the data into the computer yet . . . . so this is only preliminary “end of the year” report. I quickly went through the data for the species numbers (hope I didn’t miss anything)! We had 7 banding sessions and were able to capture 153 new individuals and 14 recaptured individuals from previous years. We used 10 (12 meter) Polyester mist-nets and banded for 6 hours after the official sunrise time. We had 167 different individuals captured with 200 total captures (including same year captures) for the 2007 season. (more…)
Mudpuppy in Allegany
During the kids fishing derby this weekend the DEC staff biologist were on site to hand-out educational information on fishing, etc. . . . they had also captured a few fish to placed into a fish tank for everyone to view up close! But, what was most amazing is that when they were capturing the minnows and fish . . . . they came across a mudpuppy along the waters edge. He stated that they witnessed this mudpuppy entangled with a little Water Snake. And it was the mudpuppy that had the upper end of the snake battle!! I call that “salamander power” and would have LOVED to see that battle!! (more…)
KIDS FISHING DERBY
Yesterday the Recreation Department hosted their first fishing derby here in Allegany State Park. This derby was for kids aged 15 and under with over 150 children who registered to participate in this event. I was asked to help with the fishing tournament at one of the check in stations to report their captures (then release their fish due to this being a catch and release event). (more…)
The Big Scream (painting)
Click on the photo to see the finished painting
CHECK THIS OUT!! “Toni” from Erie PA sent me an email last week requesting permission to paint one of my photos! Then I waited to see the wonderful painting that she would create (I just love her paintings on her blog)! . . . . . Yesterday evening while browsing my RSS feeds . . . . I stumbled over this astounding series of paintings she had done on her blog! She did such an amazing job on these cute little Barn Swallows that I needed to blog her posting! . . . . Please check out her blog at A Spattering to see the finished painting! Thanks Toni for making my day with your amazing work! (more…)
SWAT END YEAR REPORT
Song Sparrow (most captured species)
I have finally gone through all of my 2007 SWAT MAPS (Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship) raw data this week. It has been hard trying to focus on this report with “other” new higher speed internet distractions that I have been having recently. Regarding the SWAT report: we had 6 banding sessions and able to capture a total of 164 different individuals with 34 same year recaptures. We used 8 (12 meter) polyester mist-nets and banded for 6 hours after the official sunrise time. That gave us a total of 198 captures for the station and we were very happy with the excellent year that we had. Even with the need to close the station early due to the Long-tailed Weasel that terrorizing us. We are not sure what we will do with next season (regarding the weasel) but we have all winter to figure something out. (more…)
DUST BUNNIES AND CLEANING YOUR CAMERA
I love nature photography but when using a Digital SLR camera you quickly learn about Dust Bunnies. No they are not those cute little fuzzy creatures that I am normally blogging about or even those things you find in your belly button. They are very tiny particles of dust that somehow make it inside your camera and always find their way against your sensor. How apparent these dust spots are on your photo depends on the aperture setting that you are using with your camera. You can’t always photoshop these dust spots from the picture . . . . so their comes a time when you need to clean your camera sensor.
Dust Spots in the Photo. Click |HERE| to see the picture larger!
A Day for Monarchs
a monarch pair doing . . . you know what they are doing!
Recently I have sought after changing my “custom header” to a new monarch picture! I have found it very hard to find that ideal snapshot due to the strange shape the header needs to be!! So, after work I was off to Red House Lake in search of some monarch butterflies!
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My Morning Alarm Clock
Ruby-throated Hummingbird!
When I lived in the city . . . . we typically had one, maybe two hummingbirds that regularly visited my feeder. Once I moved into a house in the woods; I quickly learned that the hummingbird feeders not only attract many hummingbirds but they also attract other critters (like bears). Three years ago I had a bear encounter that changed where I have placed my hummingbird feeder. Making the long story short; about 2am in the morning the bear destroyed the feeder, fell “threw” my screen window (was half into my house), broke the window frame and woke me up from a dead sleep. Now if I would like to feed the hummingbirds . . . . I need to place the feeder somewhere on the second floor (out of reach of the critters). The most convenient location was outside my bedroom window. (more…)
BIRDING AND INTERNET
Solitary Sandpiper
Today I joined my friends Tim B. and Mike D. for a birding adventure for early shorebirds moving through the area. It was a beautiful sunny day but it seemed very quite with only a few songbirds vocalizing. Highlights were Solitary Sandpipers, Northern Harrier, flock of Kingbirds, and a Sharp-shinned Hawk. (more…)
Back to Birding
ONE HUGE SCREAM!!
Things have been so hectic recently but I am starting to see everything getting back to normal! Work’s craziness is over, banding data has been going good and I don’t have many obligations for the next few months. My current goal is to get back to birding, nature photography and do some real writing here on this blog. (more…)
numbers and letters
If you don’t see me online for the next few days. . . . I will be going bug eyed entering many numbers and letters into two different databases! This is the part of bird banding that isn’t as much fun as being with the birds. I will try to take some breaks to see what everyone is up to this week!
Last CLDC MAPS Session
A recaptured Common Yellowthroat who remembers me from last year.
Today was our last CLDC MAPS (Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship) banding session for the 2007 season! This was such a wonderful year and I can’t wait to enter all my data into the computer to learn how this season compared with other years. I promise in the near future that I will do a summary for both CLDC and SWAT banding station. (more…)
The Honor of Inspiring Others
Watercolor Painting of Tree Swallows © Sherri Friesman
I received an email about three weeks ago requesting permission to paint one of my Tree Swallow photos found through the blog. I was soo honored that she felt inspired that I quickly emailed her back saying, “Yes! Yes! Yes”! That is such a wonderful feeling that one picture can encourage someone into creating a masterpiece like this!! Just yesterday I received another email from Sherri stating that she “was finished with the painting”!! Wow, I am speechless with how wonderful it turned out and couldn’t wait to show this painting to everyone!! (more…)
jennimi visit
Today I was honored to finally meet the “blogging librarian” jennimi while as she has been off “into the woods” here in Allegany State Park this week. jennimi is such a cheerful person and I am not sure if I could ever blog enough wonderful things about her!! We found ourselves chatting about birds, blogging, and other great places for her to visit while she is in Allegany. I just know jennimi took a ton of photos and of course both my cameras were in my back-pack at the office (or I would have had pictures also)!! Do check back with her blog site at www.jennimi.com or on flickr www.flickr.com/photos/jennx/ when she returns home to civilization to report on her many nature adventures!! Maybe we will bump into each other again before she leaves??
SWAT Shut Down!
Long-tailed Weasel (with eye flash)
I made it official today . . . . the SWAT banding site is closed for the season. After an unwanted visitor showed some continued interest in my birds . . . . I made the decision to shut everything down for the safety of the birds. After discussing this situation with the Institute of Bird Populations, they agreed that my decision to shut down for the season is the best thing to do. (more…)
FOG AT THE CLDC MAPS
Tufted Titmouse
This morning was one of our foggiest days that we have had at the CLDC MAPS (Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship) Banding Station in a VERY long time. I feared that this thick fog would reduce the number of birds that we would end up capturing. Instead the birdies were soo abundant that we found ourselves spending most of our time trying to catch up with net checks! (more…)
Seconds feel like minutes!
Broad-winged Hawk
I decided to drive the long way through Allegany State Park to visit some friends camping over in the Quaker Area. Along ASP Rt. 1 I noticed a hawk coming out of the grass with something in its talons and moving directly towards my vehicle! My heart just stopped, I quickly spiked my breaks and hoped not to hear any thump like sound! While trying to look over the hood of my truck for the bird, I found myself thinking “what are my next steps are if I end up hitting the bird”?? Suddenly (more…)
GOOD AND BAD at SWAT!
Did you ever have one of these days when many good things happen but then you have some bad things happen! Today is just one of those days at the SWAT MAPS (Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship) banding station.
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Banding the Baby Bluebirds
Eastern Bluebird Nestling
The Eastern Bluebird nestlings in my back yard are in good health and yesterday we banded the babies with their very own numbered aluminum band!! I typically like to band the baby bluebirds after 10 to 11 days from hatching. If you try banding them any later than this the nestlings will then get jump happy (babies will then scatter every which direction when you open the box). Any earlier than this date and the nestlings are not developed enough to band (you can injure the bird which is the last thing we want to happen). (more…)
Mon@rch's Nature Blog 
