Song Sparrow Bath
Whether you are currently living in the heat and humidity or being threatened with heavy rain and thunderstorms we all can take a bath outside simply by walking out the door in much of the U.S. this August. Or perhaps you would like to join this Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia) for a cool down and clean up. You can see the bird even dunking its head in the water and getting its entire body wet. Bird bathing is critical for our feathered friends in order to help keep all of those feathers in the best shape they can be. Baths also likely help in getting rid of mites or ticks while of course...
Read MoreNature Through the Lenses of Tweens and Teens
Jamestown Community College’s summer camp programs; Wee College, Kids College, and Tweens 2 Teens College provide area youth with the opportunity to explore a variety of classes that will both entertain their hobbies and interests, and engage them in the learning process. Students that participated in the Tweens 2 Teens College – Nature Through the Lens class explored the JCC campus and adjacent woodlot through the medium of digital photography and were challenged to capture images of organisms that they were unfamiliar with. Back in the computer lab, the students worked to...
Read MoreSummer Sunset
This has been one nonstop summer for the Roger Tory Peterson Institute’s art, education and conservation work in Connecticut. It feels like just the other day I was enjoying the peak of spring bird migration, and here we are entering mid-August. In reality we have been going full speed ahead since mid-March and the beginning of the Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds season which continues even now with birds still yet to fledge in the next couple of weeks. The Bridgeport WildLife Guards are still on duty at Pleasure Beach for another week and a half. The below photos were taken at...
Read MorePleasure Beach Teaching
Pleasure Beach teaching continues as the Bridgeport WildLife Guards are really reaching the people heading to the shore these hot summer days during the height of vacation season. A varied audience of fishermen, beachgoers and sunbathers, families and children, and naturalists are all interacting with our crew by taking brochures about birds like the American Oystercatcher or Piping Plover, signing the Be A Good Egg pledge to help protect waterbirds on our beaches, or enjoying some of the hands-on activities the Guards have to offer. Let’s take a look… Amazingly there are only a...
Read MoreSpotted Sandpiper
The Spotted Sandpiper (Actitis macularius) is one of our easier to identify shorebirds from any distance, and their unique behaviors make them a stand out from the crowd – literally. While you may run into large flocks of shorebirds numbering in the dozens, hundreds, or even thousands heading south in the summer along lakes, in marshes, or on the Atlantic coast, you will very likely find only one or two or a handful of Spotted Sandpipers at a time. Even if multiple Spotteds are present in one place they will probably be on different flocks, not bumping into one another or seeking the...
Read MoreSpicebush Swallowtail on Eastern Purple Coneflower
This breathtaking sight was a recent morning surprise for me as once again the wonderful Eastern Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) brought in a special friend in the form of a Spicebush Swallowtail (Papilio troilus) butterfly. It can be somewhat difficult to identify the Spicebush Swallowtail as the Black Swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes) looks very similar. To me, in terms of general and unscientific impressions, the Spicebush Swallowtail is a duller black, flies a little stronger, and seems a little larger with broad wings. One scientific way to tell the species apart if you have a view...
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