Turkey 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 MoreNatural History Atlas to the Chautauqua-Allegheny Region scanned & online
Another Throwback Thursday – in 2001 the Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History published a Natural History Atlas to the Chautauqua-Allegheny Region, culminating several years of environmental education work through a matching grant from the Annenberg Rural Challenge. The printed version of the Atlas has long been sold out but did you know you can access it in full here on our website? The entire book is here for free in downloadable PDF form, so please have a read!
Read MoreWaiting for waterfowl
Whether it is the shores of Lake Erie or Chautauqua Lake to areas across the Chautauqua Allegheny region and the Northeast most observers have noted a slow movement of waterfowl thus far in November. The fall flocks of ducks, loons, swans, scoters and more will soon be moving rapidly as frigid air, ice and snow descend upon our section of the country. Without chilly temperatures freezing water and pushing birds south there are often not many to be seen, but by the time Thanksgiving rolls around we should have our typical abundance and diversity.
Read MoreWinter raptor surveys with NYSDEC
The Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History will be assisting the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation for a second season of wintering raptor surveys in Chautauqua County in 2014-2015 and we will need your help! The primary focus of these surveys is to determine where Short-eared Owls (Asio flammeus), ‘endangered’ in New York, and Northern Harriers (Circus cyaneus), ‘threatened’ in New York, are spending the winter season to roost and feed. Western New York’s NYSDEC Region 9 is a large geographical area and we at RTPI volunteered our time...
Read MoreAntler Asymmetry
White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) are a common sight throughout the Chautauqua-Allegheny region. These large mammals are often seen within the forests, fields and backyards that make up the area and all look relatively similar, having a brown and white body, big black eyes, black snouts and that characteristic white tail. This widespread ungulate often goes overlooked due to our familiarity with its presence and its rather ordinary look throughout most of the year. However, as autumn approaches, deer become much more interesting to some as males adorned with their large, bony...
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