The End of Summer
Sunset and Smokey Campfire
Summer has ended and we begin to reflect those many great things we did or didn’t do over the summer. Without a doubt one of the highlights of the summer was backpacking 3 nights along the North Country Trail here in Allegany State Park. Another highlight included the spectacular banding season with an outstanding banding crew!
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Cooked Frog Legs
Over Cooked Pickerel
When hurricane Ike arrived in the Great Lakes area yesterday, it brought with it some high winds which whipped around tree branches and we had debris flying around everywhere! Yep you guessed it; my power went out about 8:30pm from a fallen tree taking down some power lines. I never got my power back until about 6pm this evening!!! This morning I was part of the crew who worked with the electricians in getting some of the lines back up! After the power was shut off we investigated where the lines had charcoaled the ground . . . . wait a second, we need to investigate this spot closer . . . . . look it’s a zapped Pickerel Frog!!! My guess is that it was electrocuted as it tried jumping away but no matter what happened the poor little froggy didn’t have a chance!!
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American Impressionism
Bridal Falls by Todd Plough
This weekend I have been helping (artist) Todd Plough with revising his personal web page and it is amazing how a specific objects are able to inspire people in different ways. When I was looking over his paintings jpg’s . . . . I found these two specific paintings that looked extremely familiar to me!! Sure enough they were of one of my favorite places to visit . . . . !
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Roger Tory Peterson
Roger Tory Peterson
Born: 28 August 1908 Birthplace: Jamestown, New York
” . . . the man who made America
a nation of birdwatchers.”
William Zinsser
Writer and Critic
Your dashes are arrows
in A Field Guide to the Birds, the green-bound “Peterson”
tucked into belts, pushed into pockets, stuffed into backpacks
Arrows that lead eyes of millions,
squinting through binoculars,
to the red-brown cap and black “stick-pin”
identifying the passerine in snowy branches.
“That’s it,” the new birder exclaims,
pulls out list, checks off the “Winter Chippy,”
American Tree Sparrow
Arrows that glide to crest and black necklace of Blue Jay,
“golden slippers” of Snowy Egret,
yellow “spectacles,” black sideburns, of Kentucky Warbler,
purple throat, green crown, decurved bill of Lucifer Hummingbird,
white tail tip of Eastern Kingbird.
The Bald Eagle with white head and tail is “all field mark.”
In the salt marsh in May, the birder thinks “Life Bird?”
Focuses on shorebird
prodding mud flat with Short-billed Dowitchers,
Red Knots, Ruddy Turnstones. Greater Yellowlegs,
Semipalmated and Least Sandpipers,
Semi-palmated and Black-bellied Plovers.
She has identified all with the dried, wrinkled pages of her “Peterson.”
She studies what she knows to be a plover,
concentrates glasses on this bird feeding
by greening shoots of Spartina grass.
Again, she stares at your art,
your arrow guide slanting to the back.
She rereads your description:
“spangled with golden spots above.”
Suddenly, her freckled face is a loud smile,
her whisper a bursting
“Golden Plover!”
Field Guide, 1996
The Roger Peterson Institute of Natural History
Rattlesnake Orchid
Downy Rattlesnake Orchid
Last week I came across this sweet looking Orchid in Allegany State Park and just knew this was something special. Our first investigation made us believe it was the Checkered Rattlesnake Orchid but a few of the leaves on the plant and the flower alignment were off some . . . . just maybe this is a Dwarf Rattlesnake Orchid?? I sent an email to our State Park Botanist.
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A Cure for Cabin Fever!
Feet can go there!
A visit to a favorite spot in Allegany State Park gave me a break from office work and an opportunity to do a guest post for my friend and co-worker Mon@arch. The office project has been interesting, but when I took a break for lunch, and felt the warm sun, cabin fever struck.
I headed for France Brook Road to a spot our “original” naturalists called “El Creepo.” The Road Closed sign reminded me of old times when a big gravel pile made this a dead end. Once or twice each summer the naturalists would get together in the evening to walk up the hill to route one. Some of the cool critters along the way included Porcupines, a Veery family, and deer, of course.
The big favorite, and the reason we came here, were the Barred Owls; we always tried to call an owl. One of the guys once attached a little auxiliary speaker to a tape player set on the roof of his car. We used the recording to call the owl, and had one dive at the speaker–about two feet above our heads!!!
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Little Wood Turtle
Wood Turtle
Today I found a tiny wood turtle along one of the paths that I was walking here in Allegany State Park. Wasn’t the smallest Wood Turtle that I have ever found but it is unusual to find little ones like this!! Of course I had to take a few pictures of it!
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Purple Coral Fungus
Purple Coral Fungus
You ever see Purple Coral Fungus before? Typically they are white . . . sometimes orange or yellow but seeing a purple one threw me back some!!
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Floating Slug
This is something you would expect to find on the Planet Earth DVD . . . . a floating Slug! While bird banding a few weeks ago . . . . Jennifer found this floating slug and was bummed that she didn’t have her camera with her! Lucky, I had my point and shoot on me but this wasn’t an easy thing to photograph!! Here was this slug dangling on some slime/silk from a tree (which you can kind of see in the photo)!!! Isn’t our world amazing???
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Birdfreak Visit
Birdfreak, Little Kingfisher, Ed’s Father and myself
Today I had a wonderful visit by the Birdfreak Blogging Team as they passed through the area while heading to a birding festival (for Swarovski) in Rhode Island. We only had a few hours to chat but we looked for a few birds . . . Little Kingfisher (Dakota’s All Natural Experience) had the opportunity to band some baby Bluebirds . . . . and then headed up to the Thunder Rocks area to climb on some “big” rocks!! I am sure you will see many of Ed’s and Dakota’s pictures on their own blogs within the next few days (so go visit their blogs). Little Kingfisher told me that if I didn’t go home and blog something . . . . that I would owe him $50 dollars!! I didn’t want to disappoint this great young birder (and owe him $50 bucks) . . . . so here is my blog post for the day!! 🙂
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Mushroom Life [Wordless Wednesday]
Thanks everyone . . . I am fine and just busy doing other computer things! Yes, still banding and taking pictures! I also miss you all!
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Scarlet of a Day
Scarlet Tanager
Last Saturday we had a scarlet of a day banding at the CLDC station! We capture 10 different species and handled 36 individuals (18 newly banded birds and 18 recaptured birds)! Highlights were the Scarlet Tanager, Blue-winged Warblers, Chestnut-sided Warblers and Cedar Waxwing! Will turn this into an “almost” Wordless Wednesday! The pictures will tell you how exciting our day went!
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4th of July Banding
Hooded Warbler
We had another SWAT MAPS (Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship) banding session last Friday. It was a “bang” of a day with 12 species captured and 36 captures (28 newly banded and 8 birds recaptured).
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Fledgling Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Fledgling Northern Rough-winged Swallow
While walking around Allegany State Park (Red House Lake) yesterday, I found these two fledgling Northern Rough-winged Swallow being fed by mom. I knew the mother bird would return with more bugs and so I waited . . .
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Eastern Kingbird
I also had an Eastern Kingbird who allowed me to get close for a few photos on Sunday! Did I mention that Wolf Run is one of my favorite places in the park to visit??
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Wolf Run Butterflies
Today I decided to take a walk for butterflies along the Wolf Run area of Allegany State Park. Was only out for about an hour before the rain arrived but did capture a few decent photos to share with everyone!
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Half a morning of banding
House Wren (baby)
This Saturday morning we had a superb start at the CLDC MAPS banding station but then . . . . (to be continued)!!! We banded only 6 species, recaptured 9 individuals and placed new bands on 8 birdies (17 total captures). Species banded included Blue-winged Warbler, Gray Catbird, Song Sparrow, Field Sparrow, House Wren and a first for the year bird for me (also to be continued ).
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Pileated Woodpecker [Poem]
Pileated Woodpecker
dressed for his coronation
in ebony cape,
ermine trim,
scarlet-crested crown.
But would royalty be caught
backing down a dead hickory?
Other SWAT banding post!
American Goldfinch by Sarah (aka WheelieGirl)
Over the past few days we have had two blogger reports about their visit to the SWAT Banding Station last Monday. Many have already seen Jennifer’s post on her SWAT visit and the similarities of the Chestnut-sided Warbler and Yellow Warbler (if not go visit her blog now!!).
But I am 99.9% sure you have not had a chance to visit WheelieGirls blog??? Sarah is a wonderful young lady who I have known since she was a little girl and her family has been visiting my banding station since 1999. She’s becoming a stunning photographer (uses a Nikon, High Five) and I just learned last Monday that she has her own Blog! That Monday she did a post on her SWAT visit and you can see some of her pictures that she captured!! Another stunning post that you should check out is her American Robin post . . . . hmmm future nature photographer??? I think so!
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Family Day at SWAT
SWAT Group Photo
Today was Family Day at the SWAT MAPS (Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship) banding station with families from Michigan to local families who spent the first weekday of summer together! Of course the best part is that everyone here is a regular visitor to this website!!! {{{HIGH FIVE}}} It wasn’t until I was driving Young Naturalist J home that I realized that the whole “Mon@rch Nature Blog team” was together for the first time and I didn’t take a “team” picture together (big upset for the day)! But the whole team was in the group photo that I managed to get of all the families that visited in . . . . well minus one family who left early and a father who was the photographer.
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Mon@rch's Nature Blog 