Historic Western New York Snowfall
The past week has been nothing short of historic in Western New York with crippling and dangerous snowfall beyond what even lifelong residents could have imagined. This lake effect snowfall weather event was the culmination of several factors that allowed Lake Erie’s snow machine to turn on full blast and dump feet of snow in very short periods of time, rivaling some all-time American records. While the final totals need to be examined, assessed and fully vetted, once you pass four, five, six, or seven feet, there is really no number that can do the impact justice. It is a tragedy that...
Read MoreKeep cats indoors
The State of the Birds Report 2014 tells us that 2.4 billion birds are killed by cats annually in America with 196 million more slaughtered in Canada. That is not even beginning to mention how many small mammals they kill. How do we solve this? Keep cats, an invasive non-native species introduced by humans, indoors. That’s it. I know we have feral cats and that complex problem is very difficult to solve. I have had cats my entire life and have rescued plenty of strays, dealt with colonies, seen many suffer horribly because they live outside and others perish due in grotesque fashion....
Read MoreRTPI 2014 Annual Report
RTPI is proud to present our new 2014 Annual Report! View it below or open the original high resolution PDF version by clicking here. Enjoy reading this brief overview of last year’s nature art, education and conservation highlights and please consider making a donation now to help us make next year’s accomplishments bigger and better still! We thank you all for your continued support and hope to see you soon. Scott Kruitbosch Conservation & Outreach Coordinator
Read MoreBird Fest 2014 day 2
The second day of RTPI’s Bird Fest 2014 took place on Saturday, June 7. The first day featured two excursions focused on wetlands and grasslands while this second day moved us to the forest and the escarpment. The morning trip was to Allegany State Park in Cattaraugus County led by Tim Baird, an exceptional birder and naturalist. It was another lovely day weather-wise in Western New York and the group got to enjoy a lot of warblers in the Red House Lake area. The most vocal and significant warbler was the Northern Parula, an intriguing find in terms of a nesting species as several pairs were...
Read MoreBird Fest 2014 day 1
This is the first of two blog posts on RTPI’s Bird Fest 2014 which took place on Friday, June 6 and Saturday, June 7. The first day featured two excursions focused on wetlands and grasslands. The wetlands stop took us to Akeley Swamp Important Bird Area just south of the New York-Pennsylvania border in Pine Grove Township, Warren County for a walk led by Don Watts. As you can see our morning fog lifted out and revealed a perfect June day. This afforded us a lot of good viewing opportunities and a chance to conduct rail callback surveys via my iPhone – we had Virginia Rails and a...
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