WildLife 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 MoreFemale House Finch
Nobody tell this female House Finch that she is chowing down on bittersweet berries on this recent chilly winter day…or maybe we should because undoubtedly she is not receiving a very nutritious meal. That is why they are often the last thing to be snacked on by our feathered friends during the depths of winter. Fear not, birds – we will work our way into spring soon enough, and the songs of birds like the House Finch are filling the air right now… Scott Kruitbosch Conservation & Outreach Coordinator
Read MoreNorthern Cardinals in the Snow
I photographed this pair of Northern Cardinals feeding on a cold and snowy afternoon yesterday, their colors piercing the dull and dark January landscape. All sorts of birds are moving off the snow-covered and frozen earth to feed in the trees on berries and seeds. Scott Kruitbosch Conservation & Outreach Coordinator
Read MoreWhere’s the Snow?!
After above-average to historic snowfall in November it has been a slow late fall and early winter season! Western New York saw some absurd snow totals early in the autumn but it has been tough lately with this latest low pressure system coming over us, the southwest flow dragging temperatures to the 50s, pouring down rain and melting snow. Scenes like these have been difficult to find for many places in the Northeast, but we in the Chautauqua-Allegheny region will be feeling an arctic blast with frigid temperatures coming this week. Snowfall will return thanks to the Great Lakes and a...
Read MoreTurkey Devouring Bittersweet
What a Thanksgiving feast this Wild Turkey enjoyed! While we almost always expect our flocks of turkeys to be feeding on the ground on seeds, invertebrates, or even amphibians and reptiles, they can sometimes find food in other places. They do fly, after all! If you have never seen a group roosting in a tree in your yard or quickly taking off I recommend you keep an eye out for it because it is always a spectacle. In this case I watched a few of them in a tree feeding on bittersweet berries… What a resourceful bird! There is a reason their population has exploded across the Northeast...
Read More
