Gull Problems
High on the list of things I simply do not have time for in the spring is spending hours picking apart a gull identification problem. Even if I did then I would likely leave the gulls to the pros! With that said, I took a little time to see this bird last week. This individual was discovered at Long Beach in Stratford, Connecticut by Patrick Comins, Audubon Connecticut’s Director of Bird Conservation. He thought it could be a first cycle Thayer’s Gull upon initial discovery as it stood out among the Herring Gulls for several reasons. However, this was in putrid light and very...
Read MoreStudents Learn that Roger Tory Peterson is “For the Birds”
He was born in Jamestown, New York more than one hundred years ago. Imagine that city one hundred years ago; no television, no computers or any of the many electronic devices that amuse us today, not even cars to take us to entertaining places like shopping malls or sports events. What would a boy like Roger do during summer vacation? “Go outside and look at nature”, answer my audience of second grade students at Love Elementary School. It’s a library class so appropriately I show them Laura Thomas’s exquisite illustrations in Peggy Thomas’s children’s biography For the Birds, The Life of...
Read MoreWorn Field Guide – Throwback Thursday
This is my current Peterson Field Guide to the Birds of Eastern and Central North America. It is a fifth edition I have owned for nearly a decade. I thought I would toss this up for a Throwback Thursday and point out how worn it is. Forget the corners and edges, and even the binding is starting to give. The cover is really and truly that faded color after many hours in the sun in my vehicles or somewhere else. Rain, snow and saltwater spray has taken a toll, too. Considering what it has been through I think it is actually doing well. How’s yours looking? Scott Kruitbosch Conservation...
Read More“For the Birds” Presentation
“For the Birds” is a forty minute presentation, appropriate for ages 8 and up based on the children’s biography For the Birds, The Life of Roger Tory Peterson. Roger Tory Peterson is most famous for writing and illustrating A Field Guide to the Birds. He was a renowned artist, writer, photographer and naturalist who used his gifts to educate millions of people to know and appreciate the natural world. Author Peggy Thomas’s well-researched text, Laura Jacque’s beautiful illustrations, related objects and activities allow participants to make personal, social, cultural, historical and...
Read More‘Painting Birds to Save Them’
Our oldest example of Roger Tory Peterson’s field guide work – a plate depicting various herons made in preparation for the original 1934 A Field Guide to the Birds – returned home today after spending the summer in the Painting Birds to Save Them exhibit of the Museum of American Bird Art at Mass Audubon. Peterson’s work plays a critical role in modern bird art and bird conservation and it will continue to do so through our work at RTPI.
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