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]
RTPI Benefits from Cummins Employee Volunteers
Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History recently benefitted from the diligent labors of several dedicated Cummins employees; a group of energetic volunteers devoted many hours to weeding and mulching the butterfly gardens and maintaining the sidewalk and driveway at the RTPI headquarters on Curtis Street in Jamestown. They did an outstanding job of making the grounds look crisp and appealing just in time for a highly anticipated event; the artist reception with John and Suzie Seerey-Lester that officially opened RTPI’s current...
read moreSo Yellow Warbler
This is a very yellow warbler! Actually, it is such a yellow warbler that it is a Yellow Warbler (Setophaga petechia). If you ever wonder why I capitalize all the common names of birds it is for primarily this reason among a couple others (email list serv posts being another big one). Not everyone knows scientific names, and when referring to these common names, the birds should have a certain recognition that they are a species and not a yellow warbler – like a Prairie Warbler, or a Common Yellowthroat, or a Wilson’s Warbler, or...
read moreWildLife Guards Planting & Removing
The Bridgeport WildLife Guards do even more than educate beachgoers about the wildlife around us or conduct avian surveys on the shore as they, like the Project Wild America Youth Ambassadors, get hands-on with our local habitats. The Guards recently came to Stratford Point for the day in order to help enhance and maintain the increasingly spectacular site as upland habitats are completely overhauled with a focus on benefiting migratory songbirds and various pollinator species. They planted everything from butterfly weed to serviceberry while...
read moreSpicebush Swallowtail (Papilio troilus)
I took these Spicebush Swallowtail (Papilio troilus) photos last Friday evening after the opening of Stratford Point’s new water garden while the butterfly was being battered by gusty winds off the water. It was appropriately trying to feed in the garden itself but the seabreeze pushed it around to the other side of the building and some of the other gardens a little more out of the wind. Catching a drink while you’re being tossed about by those big sails is not easy, and it ended up fluttering to keep itself steady in the wind at...
read moreStar Set
The sun has never looked more like a star than in this sunset! I recently photographed the bright glowing globe in these shots by aiming the camera at it rather than looking through the viewfinder, and thankfully the horizon helped make it a bigger target. As it dropped behind the trees it slowly lost intensity and became a perfect orange orb. Aren’t we lucky to have such a close friend? It is obvious, but it is unfathomable how perfectly our neighborhood sorted itself out. It is our job to make sure we take care of our house here on...
read moreTalkin’ Trash
Plastics are ubiquitous in our daily lives due to their many desirable attributes; they’re lightweight, durable, and can be shaped into so many different items! Unfortunately, these same qualities have also led to their widespread distribution and persistence in our environment. Almost half of the more than three hundred million tons* of plastic that are produced each year are unaccounted for; in other words, they aren’t making it to recycling facilities or landfills. The majority of the plastic trash that originates on land...
read moreRTPI Establishes a Presence in Downtown Jamestown
Using Roger Tory Peterson’s life story, enduring legacy, and iconic bird art as guiding principles, RTPI provides people with meaningful opportunities to engage in natural history through our many art, education and conservation projects. Rather than compartmentalizing nature enjoyment as something that happens elsewhere (only in a nature preserve), we are working to develop the greater Jamestown area as a model urban habitat where environmental awareness and stewardship ethics are integral to everyday life, and where nature capital is...
read moreKayaking Dogs
This scene is one that has personally appalled me all spring and summer long as hundreds of people have been seen by our staff and volunteers kayaking offshore with their dogs in this apparently growing fad. To each their own, though I do wish more safety precautions were taken here…life jackets are for wearing, you know, and they do no good when you’re already in the water or injured. Regardless, so many people and dogs in kayaks among the sizable and fast boats in Long Island Sound seem to enjoy landing on various beaches and...
read moreThunderstorm Sunset
One can never be completely certain what Mother Nature will produce. As a weather nerd and wannabe meteorologist I will steadfastly defend the meteorological community while correcting anyone who unfairly besmirches it and believes we have “no idea” what the conditions will be on any given day. Advances in knowledge and technology have allowed us to predict hurricanes, snowstorms, and even tornado outbreaks well in advance to save countless lives. However, the process is not perfect, and small-scale features can be slightly off...
read moreHummingbird Clearwing Moth (Hemaris thysbe)
Here we have the Hummingbird Clearwing Moth (Hemaris thysbe) to kick off National Moth Week (July 23-31), appropriately photographed yesterday in a gratifying yet frustrating experience. I found it feeding on Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata) while watering in the morning, and because I was watering I did not have my camera (always a great tactic to ensure a good sighting). After running back inside and all the way around…yep, still there. Great. As usual with wildlife I approached it with caution, slowly, shooting while closing in...
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