Indigo Bunting
By: Pat Coate
Visited Oatka Creek with a fellow birder and blogger on July 3rd and returned on July 6th while I was up in the Rochester area. Many thanks to Jim for the guided tour, it is a great park with good habitat diversity. See Jim’s blog at http://ayearinoatka.blogspot.com.
Raccoon
By: Pat Coate
Had a recent and somewhat rare daytime encounter with this raccoon. The name raccoon has Native American roots and, per Wikipedia, means “one who rubs, scrubs and scratches with its hands”.
Been seeing lots of Gypsy Moths here in Allegany State Park. The females are the white moths and males are the brown ones (no males in the photos). I am not sure what those eggs are on the right of the Gypsy Moth egg-mass.
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Mourning Warbler (male)
By: Pat Coate
A friend in Allegany has a wonderful farm and foothill property with a beautiful hiking loop through many habitats including corn fields, meadows, woods and pasture -a birders paradise. On a recent hike I came across two warblers I don’t often see – Mourning and Hooded Warblers, and both were obviously breeding in the area.
Savannah Sparrow
By: Pat Coate
Love the thistle – was fun to try to get this guy with such a beautiful backdrop. Taken at Piney Tract in Pennsylvania.
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How to make your Red White and Blue 4th of July healthy little snack!!
-Small Flag
-Blue Berry
-Red Raspberry
-Jell-o No Bake Cheesecake with grand-cracker crust
-mini baking cups
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Going through some older photos and we have been banding lots of Waxwings lately. You just have to love the fused feathers at the tips of the wings making it look wax like! . . . . IDK, this picture just makes me smile.
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Belted Kingfisher (female)
By: Pat Coate
Taking a break from the Roger Tory Peterson Festival this week to gloat over finally capturing a decent photo of a belted kingfisher. This is one of several nemesis birds – ones that I see fairly frequently but ones that prove quite uncooperative when I reach for the camera.
My typical encounter with these birds is that I hear one as it flies away from me up river. I might catch another glimpse further along as it flies further up river or crosses the river rattling away. I’ve managed a few photos but most were quickly deleted.
Clay-colored Sparrow
By: Pat Coate
These photos are also from Piney Tract (aka Mt. Zion Grasslands), near Sligo, PA. Piney Tract is a reclaimed strip mine that is now an Important Birding Area. The clay-colored sparrows we saw there were life birds for me.
On the drive down I was lucky to sit next to Robert Bochenek. He shared aspects of his very interesting career and life story, as well as many of the pictures he took throughout the Roger Tory Peterson Festival. I have included a picture he took of a clay-colored sparrow and will be sharing more over the next several weeks.
Henslow’s Sparrow
By: Pat Coate
The Roger Tory Peterson Birding Festival was held this past Friday and Saturday in and around Jamestown, NY. On Friday I joined about 15 others and we loaded up the Jamestown Audubon van, picked up a few more along the way and headed down to Piney Tract (aka Mt. Zion Grasslands), near Sligo, PA. Piney Tract is a reclaimed strip mine that is now an Important Birding Area and contains mostly grasslands habitat. The target birds were grassland sparrows – Henslow’s, Grasshopper and Clay-colored. We were 3 for 3 and all were life birds for me!
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Welcome to the mon@rch nature blog and I hope you join us in some of our nature adventures through the Allegany State Park area!
I am a naturalist, field biologist and nature photographer from the Western New York area. I have started exploring nature writing through this blog and it truly has been fun sharing my numerous adventures with everyone. Thanks to the many other authors that help me with my post and they will be sharing some of their nature explorations.
I have always had a latent interest in birds and photography and have been lucky enough to find time to explore these interests over the last few years. I am very thankful to the Cattaraugus County Bird Club for getting me started, sharing their wealth of knowledge and for their wonderful programs. And many thanks to Tom for letting me share some of my adventures and photos on the Monarch Nature Blog.
Thank you for taking the time visiting and commenting on this blog.
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