Welcome PWA Crew Leaders!
Please join us in welcoming Heather Zimba and Adolf Zollinger as this year’s Project Wild America Youth Ambassador crew leaders! Heather and Adolf will be leading our high school ambassadors throughout the summer as our natural history studies and educational outreach continues within the city of Jamestown. They are both excellent students involved in Jamestown Community College’s environmental science program and each have worked with the Roger Tory Peterson Institute in the past. Adolf worked as a crew member during last year’s iteration of Project Wild America and...
Read MoreBaltimore Oriole
Those Baltimore Orioles (Icterus galbula) do love to stay high in the canopy of trees, and often enough all you can do is catch a quick glance of orange and black zipping by. If you know their call you probably end up hearing them far more than seeing them. This adult male did give me a minute to snap his shot as he came down to the mid-levels. He and his mate were busy feeding, and I presume they have a nest and eggs already on the way. If you have a pair in your neighborhood and would like an even better viewing opportunity then I suggest putting out half of an orange or two in your yard....
Read MoreCommon Yellowthroat
This male Common Yellowthroat (Geothlypis trichas) and I are rather close…or at least we were for about 30 seconds on a recent May morning. This bird is a migrant, though you may end up with a resident in a yard near you. Their common name does betray their abundance, and gardens, marshes, fields, forests or anywhere they can skulk about in dense, low vegetation works for them. Being a habitat generalist has helped the species end up as one of our most common warblers. It also makes them a frequent target of Brown-headed Cowbirds and brood parasitism, like the abundant Yellow Warbler....
Read MoreCommon Yellowthroat (Geothlypis trichas)
Some of our more common breeding songbirds have returned to the Northeast and are already setting up territories. The Common Yellowthroat (Geothlypis trichas) is one such species, and RTPI Affiliate Sean Graesser captured the character of an adult male in this wonderful piece for his Audubon series. Photographed for the Meet Your Neighbours global biodiversity project in Connecticut while on assignment for The Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History.
Read MoreHairy Woodpecker
Here’s the next of the “John James Audubon” series of Meet Your Neighbours shots by RTPI Affiliate Sean Graesser – the Hairy Woodpecker (Picoides villosus). The less common of our backyard black and white woodpeckers, the Hairy Woodpecker is often more elusive despite it being larger than our Downy Woodpecker. They have a larger bill, sometimes described as thorn-like, and feature all white outer rectrices unlike the black barred of the Downys. Photographed for the Meet Your Neighbours global biodiversity project in Connecticut while on assignment for The Roger Tory...
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