Pollinator Meadows
This morning RTPI Affiliate Sean Graesser and I attended the annual meeting of the Aspetuck Land Trust at the always magnificent Trout Brook Valley Conservation Area in Weston and Easton, Connecticut with many great friends, naturalists, conservationists and caring neighbors. Thankfully incoming rain showers held off until the afternoon, but the cool and cloudy conditions kept it quiet for most insects. We joined our fellow members of the Land Management Committee to hike the property after the meeting, examining our pollinator meadows and the sizable growth of uncut grasslands that are now...
Read MoreButtercups and Bobolinks
Fields painted yellow, birds singing and the sun shining, what else could we ask for? Throughout Chautauqua County the fields are becoming seas of gold as the buttercups bloom. These common flowers don’t just make a large grassy field pretty, but also provide habitat and cover for a number of breeding grassland birds. For Bobolinks in particular, these fields provide a great deal of food, abundant nesting materials and a safe haven to raise their young. As we have been conducting vegetation surveys at the Chautauqua County-Jamestown Airport, we have been surrounded by these incredible...
Read MoreMay bird migrants
I’ve spent upwards of 60 hours in the field in the last week with most of my time spent surveying for birds (besides butterflies, dragonflies/damselflies, amphibians, reptiles, plants, you know..basically everything!) and here are more of the photos I’ve taken of a bunch of species. From May 6 to May 10, without trying to accumulate a high count and simply working on specific properties, I saw 141 bird species in Chautauqua County. What were they, you ask? Here’s all of them! Canada Goose Wood Duck Gadwall American Black Duck Mallard Blue-winged Teal Northern Shoveler...
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