Finding things on the snow!
While coming home from work yesterday, I accidentally flushed a Red-tailed Hawk doing something behind the house. You know that look on a child’s face that something just happened and there is no way that they are going to tell you? Well, this was the same feeling I had with this Red-tailed Hawk who took off carrying something in its talons. I would have loved to follow it for a good photo opportunity but I needed to get the cats fed and get ready for the Kenn Kaufman talk. I did hiked through the deep snow for CSI – TOM to investigate those fallen remnants from under its perch (before I rudely interrupted is dinner). (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).
Grebe Update
Picture taken two days ago at the released
Yesterday, while heading into town; I checked two times and didn’t see the Red-necked Grebe anywhere along the Allegheny River. Although I did see many ducks swimming around like the Common Merganser, Black Duck, Mallard, Canada Goose, Common Goldeneye and a Long-tailed Ducks. It was very possible that the Red-necked Grebe was down stream (where I didn’t have access to look). (more…)
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…)
-2.9° to 42.4°F in 36 hours
Over the past 36 hours we have had a temperature change 45.3° degrees! To put that into perspective, if we had a low temperature of 55°F and had the same temperature change within 36 hours; we would be looking at it being 100°F outside!! Isn’t that crazy?
Here is my GOOD / BAD thoughts regarding this temperature changes.
| Spring is getting closer | Very muddy and ugly outside |
| Things are finally starting to melt | Soon will have flooding |
| More time outside | Treadmill gets dusty |
| Take more pictures | Less time to watch Ellen |
| Furnace doesn’t run as long | House in generally colder |
| Cats don’t lay on furnace vents as much | Cats are laying on me more |
| No more shoveling | Will probably snow again |
This evening I went for a quick walk around Red House Lake. I hoped to try and capture a bunch of pictures but the rain just made it too dark (and kinglets were too high up in the trees). Although taken with high ISO, there were 3 American Robins feeding on some berries. This was my only opportunity for a photo.
HAPPY FAT TUESDAY EVERYONE!
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!
Presidents Day Along the River
Ducks have finally arrived on the Allegheny River after the freezing of Lake Erie. In most areas where the river was open you could find some species of duck swimming. Some of these species included:
Canada Goose
Mallard
American Black Duck
Common Merganser
Hooded Merganser
Bufflehead
and….
…. these Common Goldeneye.
Bird Feeders and Sleeping Birds
Yesterday I started feeding the birds again after the feral cat took the cardinal a few weeks ago. Rumors have it that the cat was seen about a mile + away from my house. I hope it lost some interested with my empty feeder and gets lost in the deep woods. I will keep my eye open for any cat tracks and if found again, I will stop feeding for a second time. I enjoyed seeing my feathered friends again during my lunch break. I was amazed that chickadees returned within minutes of placing the feeder back in its spot on the tree.
Bear Safty Education
Recently the park obtained a large, male, black bear from the Department of Environmental Conservation. The bear was killed out of season by a deer hunter who clamed that it attacked him. It was donated to the park for educational purposes. A taxidermist mounted the head and front paws, and prepared the skull. These are materials the park naturalists will use for the Bear Safety program. Bear Safety was added to the list of program offerings in an effort to educate campers to the dangers of feeding and getting close to bears. Bears in the park are used to people, and they seem tame. Even so, they are still potentially dangerous wild animals.
The right side of the skull of a big male black bear. The canine teeth (fangs) are normal. (more…)
Roger Tory Peterson Institute has a blog
The Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History has just taken a big step into the blog world. I was lucky to watch the development of this blog over the past few months and proud for the opportunity to announce this to my nature blogging friends!! So be sure to add this site to your blog roll (or RSS feed) or you might miss something essential to the study of nature!
If you’re not familiar with the Roger Tory Peterson Institute (RTPI), they have been named in honor of America’s preeminent naturalist of the twentieth century (Roger Tory Peterson)!! The Institute is based in Jamestown, NY which is also the birthplace of Dr. Peterson (and just around the corner from where I live). To hear more about the many programs, exhibits, special events or even their numerous collections, visit the blog at http://www.rtpi.org .
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!!
Searching for Food!
I woke up this morning to find that the White-tailed Deer have been playing in the snow again!
I call these snow deer angels
Red-tailed Hawk Feeding on its Prey
I get calls all the time about a hawk that just visited someone’s feeder and they would like to know what kind of hawk is it?? Majority of the time the visitor is an Accipiter species like the Sharp-shinned Hawk or even the Cooper’s Hawk. The Accipiters have longer-tails and shorter-wings which allow them to chase the little birdies through the trees and shrubs. On occasions I have heard about Red-tailed Hawk stalking a feeder. Unlike the Accipiters who hunt by surprise, the Red-tailed Hawks will wait for their prey to come out in the open. The Buteos (which is the genus of the Red-tailed Hawk) have a shorter-tail and longer-wings which will allow them to soaring high up in the sky. They are also known to sit tight on a branch looking for any kind of movement and quickly swoop down on their prey when they are not looking.
Today one of my co-workers yelled down the hall that a Red-tailed Hawk just caught something at the feeder! Quickly I grabbed my camera and ran down the hall to see what happened. I captured a few shots (was a good distance away, sorry about the quality of the photos) and I was amazed how quickly it devoured this small critter. I feel confident that this hawk captured a small mammal due to not finding any feathers (most birds pluck the feathers away) and then closely examination the prey in the photographs. These small mammals could include meadow voles, mice, or even squirrels that might be hiding around the feeder. I have heard stories about how they witnessed a Red-tailed Hawk chasing a squirrel around a tree and then came within inches of actually catching it.
Obviously when a Red-tailed Hawk captures that squirrel the hawk needs to kill its prey as quickly as possible. If they fail to do so, the squirrel could bite the hawks toes and try to force it to let it go. This picture above shows a dead Red-tailed Hawk that was recently brought into the office. After closely inspecting it, we realized that it had numerous bite marks on its feet. Although this bird probably passed away from a vehicle strike, there was always a chance that it could have gotten an infection in its toes and then increased it chances of dieing from starvation (for not being able to use its feet properly).
Fun Day With Naturalist Buddy
I spent a lovely day with Jamestown Audubon Naturalist and Nature Photographer Jen S. here in Allegany State Park today. I am so glad that she suggested that I take some time off from work to enjoy some needed fresh air!! We didn’t go cross-country skiing as planned (I know that I keep on getting out of skiing) but we did hike along some of our snowmobile trails which gave us some great photographic opportunities. The temperatures didn’t feel bad with the sun out but we did still dressed in layers.
Jen captured a photo of me checking out this moth chrysalis. Jen – thanks for giving me permission to use this picture of me!
Jen photographing the texture of this Birch
We also enjoyed checking out the frozen Bridal Falls
Groundhogs Day
To all my Flickr and Blogging friends; I Allegany Tom on the 2nd of February 2007 predict that spring will come early this year! Sorry everyone, I had to get that out of me!! BTW: I heard on the morning news that Punxsutawney Phil did not see his shadow this morning and also predicting an early spring. I have also heard by the weatherman that this summer is expected to be very hot and muggy one. I can only hope that we don’t get as much rain as we did last year (never seemed to end).
You might wonder why Groundhogs Day is so special to so many people! It started from an old German superstition that if a hibernating animal can cast its shadow on February 2nd that winter will last another six weeks. But, if no shadow is seen, the legend says spring will be early that year. You might ask why is this holiday so special to me?? Well, I consider this extraordinary day to be my official first day of spring! This is when we really start to notice more birds singing, displaying and pairs beginning to connecting together. I find this years Groundhogs Day to be extra unique because it falls on a full moon. After I get my taxes done, maybe I can get out doing some night time cross-country skiing this evening! I will do my best to take some pictures for everyone!!
PS: if you missed it, Allegany Toms prediction was accurate after see his shadow last year!
Unwanted Visitor at the Feeder
I found some Cardinal feathers scattered about this morning and just knew something wasn’t right. I quickly headed outside to investigate the crime scene and hoped it was a Coopers Hawk or even one of the Screech Owls that made the kill! But these were mammal track left in the fresh snow. I would have settled with some fisher or even fox tracks but these were obviously cat tracks! Hmm, CSI-Tom followed the feral cat tracks to its hiding spot and you have no idea how bad I scared it away. I only wish I could have barrowed Zick’s Chet or even Mary’s Chloe to help with my cat problem!! But, it came down to removing the feeder, no seeds scattered about and blocking its hiding spot. I am now bird less at my home bird feeder and I am amazed at how quickly the birds learn that there isn’t any food around (or that a predator is around). Lucky I still have my birds at my window feeder (on the second floor) to keep me entertained.
Photo of birds from this weekend before I took everything down.
Then on my way home from grocery store; I happen to see a fox running away with something in its mouth! Is it bad that I wished it was the feral cat? Hard to tell under the moon light but looked like a meadow vole or something else that size. I have to appreciate the food chain but did it have to be one of my Cardinals?
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.
Where do birds sleep at night?
On numerous occasions I have always wondered where all of my favorite birdies end up roosting at night? I can remember a few occasions which I have actually found such birds trying to spend their evening sleeping! Of course I always seem to agitate them and then find myself feeling bad that I somehow had to inconvenience them. For example; you have those nesting birds like the American Robin who always seem to settle on that perfect location right next to the main door. During the day they will flush the nest with any attempt to approaching the door but at night they will lay very low and only flush when approached too close.
During the winter months some species will obviously make their wintering roost site noticeable by roosting together in one large group (but rarely do we see them actually sleeping). The most typical example is when the American Crows flying many miles from their wintering territories to this one specific tree in someone’s backyard. It is absolutely breathtaking to see so many crows filing to these specific trees and then together move over to their roosting trees. These roosts have been known to scare neighborhoods by their strange grouping behavior. I can also remember those sounds made by thousands of European Starlings congregating together in that one particular bridge that I walked across each day. Then on that one precise second near sunset; every starling will instantly stopped vocalizing and you hear absolute silence.
Then you have those cavity species that will spend their evening roosting in trees like the Eastern Screech Owl or Eastern Bluebird. These birds are trying to avoid the elements of the weather and there are some individuals who might use these same holes for nesting sites during the summer months. I am sad to say that I have found numerous tree swallows smothered on the bottom of bluebird box after a cold spell approached. These birds were over stacked in the box while trying to use their body heat to stay warm. Those individuals on the bottom of the box had too many birds stacked on top of them and lost their life. Lucky this doesn’t happen on a regular basis.
This weekend I happen to come across an unusual encounter that I never expected to uncover. I saw this goldfinch flying towards the house while picking up my kitties food plates. This goldfinch was climbing in-between a 3 inch gap around the foundation of the house and some melted snow. It then climbed out of this crack and into an area that I couldn’t see from the window. I had just assumed this little fluff ball was searching for some food just before dusk (but something wasn’t right). I then decided to put on my boots and go investigate what this bird was getting into! I thought maybe it had found some stone flies or something else that was hidden in there. But, I never expected to find this goldfinch with its head tucked under its wing trying to sleep. It was cold so I assume this little birdie was trying to find a safe sheltered spot to keep out of the elements of the weather. I probably should have tried to photograph it but it was dark and some times we need to focus on the birdies best interest!!
This evening we are expecting this to be our coldest night of the year with the wind-chills being anywhere from -10° to -20°F. I wonder where my many birdie friends will be hiding this evening with such cold temperatures approaching. I do anticipate them making an early rise and starting to fatten up with my sunflower seeds.
Update: In Feb I found where a songbird had roosted for the night and I captured a photo of it!
time for work or time for play?
This weekend I spent numerous hours working on my end-of-the-year reports and can you believe that I am still behind on my PowerPoint slide show? This tardiness is partially due to parking myself next to the window entering my endless data into the computer. Of course I was watching the bird activity at the feeder’s more than typing. I was amazed at the nonstop lake effect dumping on us and I have decided that it is officially the start of winter (which finally brought out the birds). Although winter arrived late this year; I am just starting to see true signs of spring with numerous species of birds beginning to behave differently.
The entire day I watched two pairs of Northern Cardinals showing continuously agonistic behavior between each other. I still think that they only had a few opportunities to eat a few seeds before another cardinal would chase it away. It appears that the territories of the Cardinal have already been established and I think my feeder is the no fly zone between these two pairs.
I also noticed that the Dark-eyed Junco’s were more frequently singing and could this be the start of pair bonding? It is still quite a few months until they begin sitting on eggs but it is wonderful to hear those junco trills again after a long quiet fall/winter. I plan on continuing to watch all the birds at my feeders and smile every time those cute little chickadee’s tell the females “cheeeeese….burg..ger”
I will continue working on my PowerPoint slide show and then start working on more year end reports for 2006 (ugg). Just someday I can get back to schedule on updating my blog on a daily basis and spend more time taking pictures of our favorite fluff balls. Sunday you can expect me taking advantage of this fresh snow going snowboarding at one of the resorts for the first time this season. I hope to try to do some cross country skiing tomorrow evening after work.
Shameless Self Promotion
Last Friday the lake effect snow parked itself over the Southern Tier (WNY) which resulted in probably more than 6 inches of fluffy white snow. Accidents were happening all over the place and it was decided that our Cattaraugus County Bird Club was going to cancel our meeting scheduled for that evening. Being stuck in the house with nothing to do, I decided work on a new blog that I have wanted to do for a while now called “birdQUIZ”!!
I then spent many hours this weekend working on some of my end of the year reports due any day now. Ok, behind because of flickr and my blog world that have been taking up much of my extra time that I have (which I did end up finishing the reports about 11pm last evening). But, I did find some time for a few pictures of some birdies at the feeder and have a few “feeder” stories that maybe I can get around to posting. I now need to focus my time on a PowerPoint program that I need to complete for the many birdclubs, nature study clubs, ect.. scheduled across the Southern Tier this spring. I promise to try to take some brakes and visit your blog or photostream here in the near future.
BTW:!! birdQUIZ isn’t a blog that I plan on updating daily but it is a place that I plan on including fun birdQUIZ pictures that I have taken from time to time. So, be sure to add it to your RSS feed for any updates that I do. Check it out at http://birdquiz.wordpress.com.
Kenn Kauffman Speaking at RTPI
Great news everyone! Kenn Kaufman has been finally schedule to speak for the Roger Tory Peterson Institute distinguished speaker series on the 28th of February 2007. The lecture will be held over at the Stanley Weeks Theater on the campus of Jamestown Community College (is located at 525 Falconer Street, Jamestown, NY for those doing map quest).
Kenn Kaufman will introduce his new book, “A Field Guide to the Insects” and I anticipate him doing a wonderful slide program related to insects. I just learned from his website that this new insect guide has been illustrated with over 2,350 digitally enhanced images and they are planning on setting a new standard with detailed coverage maps. I can’t wait to see this book because I absolutely love how the butterfly guide turned out.
I have had an opportunity to hear Kenn speak twice before and every time he did a amazing job! I can’t wait to hear what he has to tell us again next month regarding the insects in his new book. Price for this event is $5 for member and $7 for non members. For more info you can contact the Roger Tory Peterson Institute at 716-665-2473 or on the web at http://www.rtpi.org.
Do turkeys smile?
I might be a Tom but I am no Turkey!
Here is looking at you my blogging and flickr friends.
Turkey Banding
Today I helped the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) band Wild Turkeys here in Allegany State Park. What a perfect way to start the DEC and National Wild Turkey Federation’s second season by catching, banding and releasing 7 Turkeys. The DEC teams will continue to band birds across the New York State and collect information on our Wild Turkey populations.
I quickly headed down to the banding site after learning that I was given the ok to join the DEC team for the day. Once I arrived the crew had just finished setting everything up and it was now time to wait for the birds to show up. This was probably the coldest day of the year and I feel so sorry for that biologist who was stuck in that very cold blind waiting for their arrival. I decided to sit in my warm truck just down the road waiting for the his go-ahead that the birds have been caught and everything is clear.
I first found myself chatting with everyone ……. then trying to stay warm in the truck …… eating a little …… looking through the binoculars for any possible birds moving through…….. playing with the radio ……. turning on the heater again …….. playing with my cell phone …… and then a few hours later we got those 5 words that I can still remember!! “Radio silence we have birds!!” Did he just say that he can see birds out there? Everyone started to get excited and then we saw that very large pooof of smoke from the large rocket nets.
Supposedly this flock of Turkey arrived from the forest edge and then ran directly towards the cracked corn as if they were racing to see who would make it there first. It was only a matter of minutes until all the birds were on the target and the trigger was set off sending the rocket net directly over the birds. Quickly everyone at the waiting point took off in their trucks to assist in the banding of the captured Turkeys!!
For as many times that I have seen turkey up close, I found myself dumbfounded by how colorful they really are. Of course these colors can not be compared to the many songbirds that I band like the Yellow Warblers, Scarlet Tanagers or even the Indio Buntings!! But for an ugly bird like the Wild Turkey, they surely have such a spectacular blue, red coloring in their head and even those glossy green feathers on them just made me say “wow look at how beautiful they are”!!
Yes, let me tell you how hard it was to focus on preparing these birds for their removal from the net into their holding box. Each bird was banded one at a time with two metal bands placed around their legs. This allows each bird to be tracked individually like I do with my owls and songbirds.
To my excitement the team gave me an opportunity to band my very first Turkey with one of their bands!! As most know, I am currently a federal and state permitted licensed bird bander and I have handled hundreds of species of birds. My permits specifically say “all species except hummingbirds, gamebirds and endangered species. Wild Turkey are considered game birds and I know that I could have never dreamed of having an opportunity to band such a unique bird like the turkey. No doubt that I soaked up every second of the day and took a bazillion pictures.
We released these amazingly large birds as one group so that the flock would stay together (see me on the far left)!! There is no doubt that each one of these birds looked like flying bowling balls trying to make their quick getaway! This is just another winter day for a naturalist here in Allegany State Park.
Winter Beaver Activity
Typically this time of the year the water is covered over with a thick layer of ice and snow. Little work is done by the beavers while the females are preparing to give birth. I noticed with the above average temperatures this year that the beavers have been putting in some overtime doing what they do best. I noticed since my last visit last fall that they have been enlarging their dams, adding to their food storage and improving their lodge.
It is so hard to believe that these dams are built entirely by the beavers. The picture on the left shows their main dams that’s just over 6 feet in height. Since the fall these guys have added an additional 2 feet to this dam and it is unbelievable how much water they are currently backing up. The second picture shows one of their reservoirs just down stream that they built to give the beavers more access to their food. They need to back up the water with these dams to providing protection from predators, ability to float logs back to their lodge and soften up the mud which helps them build everything up better.
During the fall months the beavers are very busy adding sticks to their food storage stacks to feed on during the winter months. I was shocked to find this food storage larger than I normally find this time of the year. If you look at this picture above you will see their typical way the beaver store the family’s food storage piles. This gives the beaver access to their food when the water is frozen over and limited to just their pond. Then they can swim under the ice to their food storage and bring the sticks back to the lodge to eat.
As the water level rises by increasing the height of the dam these beaver will continue to work on the lodge. They will add more mud and sticks to the outside of the lodge but then inside the lodge remove sticks from the top to add it to the lodge’s floor. It is a perfect way of building the lodge up to the needed size for the family living in it.
These beaver dazzle me every time that I visit them with their ability to do amazing work with sticks and mud.
Mon@rch's Nature Blog 