Happy Furry/Feathery Friday
I ended up finding the birds very active around my window feeder today and it was probably due to the St. Patrick’s snow storm hitting us. So, I decided to capture some wonderful up close videos of the birds interacting together. I am very excited to add these to the blog but I first want to figure out how to make them educational (so they should be posted soon)!! I began to review them on the computer and something wonderful happened (and I quickly grab my camera)!
Although this was a test with my cats self control; the real birds outside quickly refocused their attention elsewhere. Do note that I edited out the 5 minutes of Phoebe studying the screen and showed you the two cat’s breaking points. It was very cute to watch.
Happy Furry and Feathery Friday everyone.
Change of Plans!
I first intended this post to include a wonderful in-depth discussion on Eastern Skunk Cabbage!! But, things just continue to occur which has kept me from writing it (high school friend called, cat puked, ect…)! So, I have decided that instead of writing a half ass post that I am going to hold off till tomorrow. I hope this White-tailed Deer video clip that I captured on Sunday will make up for my laziness.
Although, I am pleased to report more signs of spring are still becoming apparent! Today I saw my first Red-shouldered Hawk this season displaying high up in the sky. CHECK – Great part is that I didn’t see one, but three different males displaying in three different locations here in Allegany State Park! Even though they wouldn’t allow me to photograph them, they are still my favorite of all hawks!
Sunny Sunday
Today was a perfect day to do some bird watching and I was happy to locate 29 species of birds. Although most of the waterways were frozen over, there were 6 species that were first of the year sightings for me (which include the): Pied-billed Grebe, Woodduck, Gadwall, American Wigeon, Killdeer, and Song Sparrow. Other great sightings for the day included the Bald Eagle, Rough-legged Hawk, Wild Turkey, Hooded Merganser, Bufflehead and a Red-necked Grebe! I spent extensive time watching the Red-necked Grebe with hopes that I might be able to see a band on it. I even tried to shoot some video threw my spotting scope and this evening I reviewed all the video clips frame by frame. Here are two good clips of the Grebe that I captured through my spotting scope (most others were too wobbly): (more…)
Wordless Wednesday (ok a few words)
Goldfinch visiting me just outside the Administration Building here in Allegany State Park, NY
Took the Wordless Wednesday idea from Barbara. Wait, have I said too much already?? Darn!
What is a Naturalist?
Photo of a visit to Costa Rica by an old friend and great naturalist.
What is a naturalist? If he makes systematic observations, keeps careful records, and tries to interpret them, he is certainly a scientist, yet he differs profoundly from other scientist, even from other biologist. Many a scientist is never happier than when he can bring into his laboratory whatever phenomenon he is investigating, isolate it, and study it under controlled conditions. His triumph is to summarize his observations in a neat graph or a mathematical formula. He lives in middle-class comfort like any other professional man. To the true naturalist, the concrete experience of living things in their natural setting is at least as precious as any generalization or “law” that he can derive from his observations. To gain this experience, he is willing to endure discomforts and privations in far places. (more…)
Kenn Kaufman at RTPI
Kenn Kaufman spent the evening talking to many guest and members of the Roger Tory Peterson Institute (RTPI) in Jamestown, New York. Kenn is the fourth author who has been invited to speak at the Distinguished Speaker Series at RTPI (funded through the Johnson Foundation). Kenn is best known as the author of the book Kingbird Highway and his Kaufman Focus Field Guides. Tonight was the official release date for his newest Focus Guide on the Insects of North America and it looks like a very useful guide for any nature enthusiast (I know its going in my library).
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…)
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!
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!!
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!!
Nuthatch Fun Today
This White-breasted Nuthatch was teasing me all day with opening seeds in my window feeder. I happen to pull out my point-and-shoot camera and captured this mini video clip. It would take the seed, place it in the crack and chip away at the shell to open the seed. Yes – my windows are dirty.
I am extremely happy that blip.tv has finally worked out the code for adding video clips to wordpress blogs!!! Expect many more fun video clips from me here in the near future!
BIRD BANDING NEWS FOR THE DAY
Today I recaptured a male Red-breasted Nuthatch who I had first banded on the 5th of October 2005 (I have caught this guy a few times now). I have 5 or 6 Red-breasted Nuthatch who have been banded around the office but I seriously think this little guy probably visits my window feeder more than any other of those nuthatches. I always love watching him climb up and down the window frame.
what is that in my bluebird box
Yesterday, I took a little hike down ASP Rt. 2 looking for some Shrikes or any other unique winter bird hiding in the shrubs. Being so quiet, I found myself looking inside some of my bluebird boxes that I have not checked since August (removing the older nest left by the bluebirds).
One of the boxes had been filled up with grass. Anyone who has worked with nest boxes knows that I am about to deal with some little furry mammal (not birds). Sure enough, there were 2 Deer Mouse holding their ground and not wanting to leave the box. I was just glad they didn’t run down my arm like they normally do when I open the box.
I questioned if I should have left these mice alone or just evict them. If this box was regularly used by Tree Swallow’s, I probably would have let them spend the winter there but this exact box has been one of my better Eastern Bluebirds boxes for the past 5 spring/summers. I am afraid that these mice might discourage any bluebird looking for a winter roost or for when the birds decided to start investigating for an empty box. I am also concerned that the urine left by the mice could attract predators which might destroy the box trying to get inside (This summer I had a Black Bear shred apart a box to get inside, ugg). Anytime you remove a mouse nest, you should always use protection over your face so that you don’t inhale any of their dandruff. You should also try leaving the box open for a week to dry the soaked mice urine left buy these cute furballs.
Last spring I encountered this Red Squirrel in one of the new boxes built by some Boy Scouts. It is hard to believe that something so big can live in such a little box. I have found that these squirrels do all kinds of damage by chewing the hole bigger which can then make it easier for predators (raccoons, ect..) to steal the baby nestlings or eggs from the box.
It can become a full time job taking care of all your bluebird boxes but very well worth seeing and hearing the birds out in the fields. I promise to keep you updated with this blog on how the boxes are doing here in Allegany State Park.
Learning about Animal Sounds
This evening at the Roger Tory Peterson Ornithological Club, we had Greg Budney present a program on Animal Sounds. Greg is the Director of the Sound Collections from the Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Don’t expect the Macaulay Library to be your typical library because they have very few books on their shelves! They have the largest archive of animal sounds and associated video located anywhere in the world. You can find the natural behavior/vocalizations from the large whale to your local tiny leaf hopper. They have a very long hisotry of inventorying from way back when the lab first originated.
I had an opportunity to visit the library back in 1997 when working on some studies with post nesting vocalizations of the Veery. The staff was extremely helpful with our numerous goofball questions and they gave us a wonderful tour of their facilities (3 years ago they moved into a new building). After leaving the Library, we felt more confident in capturing the needed data for the project but funding never became available and we only collected some preliminary data for the project!
Greg Budney’s program this evening didn’t consist of any slides or pictures but we solely used our ears for this program. He played some sounds from animal that are commonly heard in movies to very low frequencies of the alligator which show vibrations of water before hearing the sound. We learned how researchers use these sounds for endangered species and discovered how insects use vibrations for communications. Best part of the program was learning what a researcher accidentally hitting another research’s head with a paddle (waking them up) sounds like over the microphone. Greg was a wonderful speaker and he helped remind me how important it is to use our ears while out in the field. While leaving the Roger Tory Peterson Institute we heard a Spring Peepers vocalizing behind the building (Linda and a few others at the meeting talked about hearing these guys squeaking, glad to have heard them also).
Do visit the Macaulay Library free online Animal Behavior Archive website.
How to have fun when there are no Owls
I have some friends staying over at Cain Hollow for Columbus weekend and this photo was from my trip home just before opening my nets for owls. Obviously from this photo you can see the moon is very bright and almost “Full”. We are not exactly sure why but it is assumed that the reason Owl banders don’t catch many owls during full moon nights is that the Owls are able to see the nets. So, obviously we didn’t catch any owls but we made the best of the night.
The kids were very spontaneous when on camera but I think everything worked together alright. (BTW: We didn’t see the aurora but the fog almost looked as if it was really the northern lights, I took that photo from the web somewhere).
Radar showed a strong movement of birds tonight with perfect calm NE winds and clear sky!
Mon@rch's Nature Blog 