Traveling with cats
My Mum’s Cat
It is amazing what some people with do for their pets or as in today’s case what my mother will do for someone else’s cat. Around 3pm I got a frantic message on my cell asking me to call my mother back ASAP. Here I am thinking she was in a car accident or something. . . . she had found a lady who was at a truck-stop/gas-station and her cat somehow jumped out of her vehicle when she exited the car. You guessed it . . . the cat b-lined under a storage shed and couldn’t be convinced to climb out since almost 11am. I think my mothers exact words were “I am not leaving until this poor girls gets her cat back”.
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Chimney Swifts in Allegany State Park
Chimney Swift
One of my joys of being around Allegany State Park is watching the Chimney Swifts entering chimneys around the Administration Building during dusk hours. These unique birds look almost like flying cigars and are remarkable fliers. You typically hear them chattering before you ever get a chance to see them. Chimney Swifts are constantly flying throughout the day in search of food and can travel long distances. They will roost and nest in chimneys and are historically known to use the hollow trees in the forest for nesting. I sometimes wonder if they are not still doing this in some areas. (more…)
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…)
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…)
Mon@rch's Nature Blog 