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 exhibition – “Keeping the World Wild” – showcasing the...
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 others! And if you ever spot a little gull, be...
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 removing non-native invasive species such as...
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 times. The species is a daily sighting now among...
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 the Earth, and we have to start doing better! We...
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 – those soda bottles, shopping bags, drinking...
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