Jamestown Christmas Bird Count Tomorrow – Snowy Owl in 2013
Tomorrow is the Jamestown, New York Christmas Bird Count! We hope you will be able to participate if you are in our area. The compilation is once again at RTPI as well. Here’s one of my highlights of the Jamestown count last year, a Snowy Owl that I photographed at the Jamestown/Chautauqua County Airport. Who knows what will be seen this year – good birding to all! Learn more about CBCs here: http://rtpi.org/christmas-bird-counts/ Scott Kruitbosch Conservation & Outreach Coordinator
Read MoreSnowy Owls spreading south
In the past week, since I posted this entry about another possible irruption, more Snowy Owls have moved in to southern Canada and the United States. One bird was found and photographed by Michele Rundquist-Franz, President of the Presque Isle Audubon Society, in Erie, Pennsylvania, not too far from us at the Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History in Jamestown, New York. Local excitement went up another level this weekend as two Snowy Owls appeared here in our own Chautauqua County on Saturday, November 15, both at the Dunkirk Airport. The first was found in the morning by our...
Read MoreNorthern Wheatear season
The Northern Wheatear is undoubtedly one of my favorite North American nesting species despite the fact it is one of the toughest to find in the contiguous United States. I have no real reason for why I love the bird except for the fact that it is so difficult to call it simply a “North American” species and I admire its biology. Two populations nest on the continent with a western group breeding in Alaska and far northwest Canada with an eastern group in north central and northeastern Canada, the former group migrating southeastward across Asia to move to Europe and finally...
Read MoreNew York State Young Birders Club visits RTPI
This past Sunday, July 20, the New York State Young Birders Club visited us at the Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History. Thanks to the assistance of our friend and supreme naturalist Tim Baird we were able to arrange a visit of several young birders in order to target some of the fantastic and conservation concern grassland species that can be found here in Chautauqua County. RTPI Affiliate Sean Graesser and I met up with the group at RTPI at 7:00AM to head to the Chautauqua County/Jamestown Airport. Unfortunately we have not recorded the New York State “Threatened”...
Read MoreAmerican Kestrel (Falco sparverius) by Scott Kruitbosch
American Kestrels are patrolling our grasslands at spots like the Chautauqua County/Dunkirk Airport. This one kept me company today while the songs of Eastern Meadowlarks rolled across the land.
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