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 Reveals Pieces from Archival Collection
Roger Tory Peterson Institute is the sole holder of the life’s work of our namesake’s influential artist and naturalist. While many of RTP’s pieces are featured in the various Peterson Field Guide publications, some of these have for many years remained concealed from public view in our extensive archives. A selection from this lesser-known RTP art collection finally met the light of day when it joined the work currently on display at our Jamestown, NY headquarters. Unless you’ve visited our galleries recently, you have not seen these! Some...
read moreRTPI’s National Invasive Species Awareness Week
National Invasive Species Awareness Week – February 21-27, 2016 RTPI, in partnership with WNY PRISM, will be offering multiple events to the public during week. If you wish to register for one or both of the workshops please fill out this form. Please register by mail or email no later than Saturday February 20th. Registration forms and checks payable to the Roger Tory Peterson Institute can be sent to 311 Curtis Street, Jamestown NY 14701. Forms may also be emailed to Elyse Henshaw atehenshaw@rtpi.org and payment can be made the morning of...
read moreVolunteers Needed for Shorebird Monitoring 2016
The Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds 2016 monitoring and stewardship season is about to begin! Please see the USFWS news release below for details, and please pass this along to any new volunteers you feel would be interested in joining us. We hope all our past monitors will be returning this year after yet another record-setting season in 2015. We can only keep this success going with your help! Spend your summer days at the beach and help protect a federally threatened species! The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and its partners are...
read moreNot So Sleepy Bears
While the landscape in Western New York is rapidly changing thanks to some lake effect snow, earlier this week the ground was completely uncovered, temperatures were above normal and some normally sleeping wildlife were out foraging on available food resources. These photos were taken by my dad while he and a friend were out on a walk. As you can see, that black shape isn’t a wandering cow in the corn field rather it is an American Black Bear (Ursus americanus) awake from its “hibernation.” According to NYS DEC and the North...
read moreRusty Blackbird Blitz 2016
Citizen scientists – the 2016 Rusty Blackbird Spring Migration Blitz is coming to a state near you! I am the statewide Connecticut coordinator for the Rusty Blackbird Spring Migration Blitz, running from March through mid-June across the continent and focused in Connecticut from mid-March through April. This effort to save the one of the fastest declining once-common landbirds in North America needs your help. You can see more about the species in the below two-page informational document about the Rusty Blackbird (PDF downloadable...
read moreSo Far So Good
So far we have monitored five sites of interest within Chautauqua and Cattaraugus Counties in search of new infestations of Hemlock Woolly Adelgid. For the third year in a row, all of our sites still appear to be HWA free, and are full of healthy trees that support beautiful ecosystems. This past week in particular, we monitored South Valley State Forest and learned from a local volunteer that the streams running through it are excellent trout streams. Thanks to the shade the hemlocks provide, these streams stay cool and therefore highly...
read moreHemlock Woolly Adelgid Discovered in Chautauqua County!
“Unfortunately we found hemlock woolly adelgid on 5 hemlocks in the (SUNY Fredonia) Campus Woodlot today. Hemlock woolly adelgid, an aphid from China, attacks and kills hemlocks in a few years. There are no survivors. Hemlocks have already been wiped out in the southern Appalachians and the infestation is moving north. Last winter we located 60 infested hemlocks in the Campus Woodlot and Campus Facilities responded and stem injected the trees. We have made great progress — we will more exhaustively monitor the Campus Woodlot in...
read moreStratford Great Meadows Unit Training
Here’s my huge “thank you!” to all of the great volunteers that joined us at a training and informational sign-up session yesterday for the Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service is seeking volunteers to help out at the Refuge’s Stratford Great Meadows Unit, and now we have over 25 more people on board to help with public outreach, clean-up efforts, maintenance and bird surveys. The event was cosponsored by Audubon Connecticut, New Haven Bird Club and the Roger Tory Peterson...
read moreFox Tracks
These tracks in the wind blown snow belong to the Red Fox, with some steps sinking in and others being light enough to stay on the surface. More will be on the way soon! Whether it is the lake effect showers and squalls from the Great Lakes or one of a number of potential storm systems sweeping our way with a favorable and active mid-February pattern coming up there will soon be a lot of classic winter weather being felt across our region. Get out there this weekend and put some of your own footprints on the earth, making sure they are all...
read moreGreater Scaup
There were so many more ducks pushed out into the open ocean during the past two winters with the icy Great Lakes and nearly every inland body of water being locked up for most of the season in the Northeast. This year species like these Greater Scaup can still be found in more northerly areas with sometimes historic warmth occurring. As of yesterday the Great Lakes ice cover was only at 7.2% compared to 2015’s 49.0% and the even more frozen 77.7% in 2014. Our local Lake Erie was essentially entirely ice at this point in the last two...
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