I love this time of year. After the exuberance of summer and the vibrant colors of fall, I’m thankful for the days growing shorter. The nights longer. Temperatures falling. Silhouettes of bare branches against a leaden sky promising snow. All of nature winding down. Encouraging quiet. Reflection. Introspection. [more]
Bay-breasted Warblers
We are getting to the end of the spring migration season, and as hard as that is to believe our later arriving species are trickling through as many of the species that arrived earlier are getting down to nesting. One of my favorite passing migrants is the Bay-breasted Warbler (Setophaga castanea), a large and gorgeous species that I believe seems more rare than it is. Bay-breasted Warblers start passing through the region as most of the other spring birds are peaking. These birds remain mostly high in the canopy – above eye-level and...
read moreWildLife Guards Crew Leader Positions – Three 2017 Job Openings
Related to RTPI’s work with Audubon Connecticut in the Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds is our partnership on the Bridgeport WildLife Guards project: http://rtpi.org/education/wildlife-guards/ RTPI is once again teaming up with Audubon Connecticut to run the 2017 WildLife Guards program, which trains, mentors, and employs 12 local high schools students and three crew leaders who monitor nesting birds and engage visitors, families, and friends about two of Connecticut’s most important beaches and their wildlife. The WildLife...
read moreGreen Heron
Spring is filled with so many wonderful sights and sounds as a multitude of colorful songbirds return and fill our landscape with life. However, there are many other bird families returning to us as well. This Green Heron (Butorides virescens) was an unexpected and gratifying capture a couple of weekends ago while I was targeting warblers. It really provided a wonderful pose and superb bokeh for me for a few seconds during our chance encounter. Green Herons are special in that they are one of a handful of bird species in the world that use...
read moreWhite-eyed Vireo
The White-eyed Vireo (Vireo griseus) was high on the list of spring targets for me this year, as I have not had a good look at the species in quite some time and I certainly did not have any decent photographs of one. That sentence was past tense because I recently accomplished this mission. I certainly feel as though I can do better, but considering its behavior, the weather conditions, location, and time of day, I was happy with what I got. Can you tell why they are called White-eyed Vireos? This uncommon (at least in our region) species is...
read moreUnique Fly Fishing Conference for Educators to be Held at RTPI – June 9 registration deadline
In the summer of 2012, we held the first and what remains as the only national interdisciplinary fly fishing conference. The Children in the Stream’s intensive three-day conference continues to be a huge success as it trains adults who are interested in integrating fly fishing into the curriculum in their community, school, organization or company. These comprehensive workshops use fly fishing as the foundation for investigating science, math, English language arts, visual arts and community outreach. This truly unique interdisciplinary...
read moreCelebrations Set In Stone
If you pay a visit to RTPI this spring, you will find that our flower beds are bedecked with new garden stones. The garden in the circular drive received a stone in honor of, and donated by, the Green Thumb Garden Club, who has tended this garden for many years. A Ralph Waldo Emerson quote, “The earth laughs in flowers” adorns this stone, along with the iconic Snowy Owl image as painted by Roger Tory Peterson. The garden at the side of the building boasts a stone honoring the Jamestown Garden Club. This group tends the garden which is called...
read moreSpring Blooms in Wild America
In the spring of 1953, Roger Tory Peterson and his British friend James Fisher embarked on a thrilling 100 day, trip to explore and document the Wilds of North America. Their excursion took them from Newfoundland to Florida, the heart of Mexico to the dry Southwest, the Pacific Northwest to the Pribilof Islands of Alaska, and the numerous memories of the splendors they encountered were later documented in a book titled Wild America, first published in 1955. Among the many things that Peterson and Fisher recorded along their journey were...
read moreFluid Dynamics Reincarnated
An elegant sculpture entitled “Well-Feathered Arrow” by Dale Weiler is currently on view in our new exhibition, “The Weilers Evolution; A Father and Son’s Artistic Journey”. But this lovely piece is actually a reincarnation of the original piece entitled “Fluid Dynamics” that was intended to be debuted here as part of the Society of Animal Artists Show in 2015! Unfortunately (or fortunately), the original sculpture was damaged during shipment. Upon its return, the artist found that it could not only be repaired but also improved! In the words...
read moreBicolored Antbird
Here’s a catch made during my recent research trip to Costa Rica. Not a neotropical migrant this time, but a local resident species. This unusual-looking fellow is a Bicolored Antbird (Gymnopithys leucaspis), one of several so-called “ant-birds” that are usually found only in the vicinity of army ant swarms. All day long these birds follow the ants -at a safe distance- and expertly capture insects that are flushed, but not caught, by the invading army.
read moreBlack-throated Blue Warbler
I finally took a good photo of a male Black-throated Blue Warbler (Setophaga caerulescens) earlier this week! However, it was not without tremendous persistence and many failed attempts, as is the beauty of digital photography. What you cannot see is that I edited out the black-legged or deer tick attached to this poor guy’s face. The tick was engorged just in front of his eye, a precarious place to scratch. Please keep ticks in mind as you go outdoors this season as many people still neglect to take any precautions or check themselves...
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