Snow Bunting (Plectrophenax nivalis) by Twan Leenders
Are you participating in a Christmas Bird Count sometime in the next month? Our local counts are this weekend with tomorrow in Warren, PA and Sunday in Jamestown, NY. It’s always a great time to get the whole family outside. Even if the terrain is frigid and covered in white you can still enjoy seasonal birds like this Snow Bunting (Plectrophenax nivalis).
Read MoreSnowy Owl sightings and statistics
Snowy Owls have exploded across the eastern half of the United States since I blogged about the possible invasion coming this season. There has been an unbelievable push of birds heading to the south and concentrated in the Great Lakes to Northeast and the Atlantic Coast and continuing south by the day. Two years ago we had a similar burst of Snowy Owls pour down into the U.S. but it was more uniformly spread across the upper half of the country. Many Central and Northwest areas had sizable numbers of birds while the Northeast and Atlantic Coast had fewer. Why is there such a difference in...
Read MoreSnowy Owl (Bubo scandiacus) by Twan Leenders
As I wrote in our blog before the invasion started, please remember that if you find a Snowy Owl it has flown all the way here very likely because it is frantically searching for food and is starving and exhausted. Give it as much room as you can while viewing it and allow it to hunt without being disturbed. While we have no control over whether or not there will be an irruption and should not feel guilty over enjoying seeing them if there is a sizable flight south we can control how much we do (or hopefully do not) pressure them while they are among us. Recording the sighting in eBird also...
Read MoreSnowy Owl invasion coming?
Snowy Owls (Bubo scandiacus) are one of the most magnificent and well-recognized species on the entire planet. This would be part of the reason why we chose them to be our new logo, and the Snowy pictured within it is adapted from Roger Tory Peterson’s “Arctic Glow”. As a raptor lover in general they are one of my favorites, and living on the Connecticut coast for nearly my entire life I had the chance to enjoy them during fall and winter seasons as Roger did throughout his as he often lived and worked in the same areas. After seeing a sudden burst of eBird entries and list...
Read MoreHermit Thrush (Catharus guttatus) by Scott Kruitbosch
This Hermit Thrush (Catharus guttatus) was at the Times Beach Nature Preserve in Buffalo on October 13. The reddish tail of the common fall migrant always contrasts with their duller body. This routine sighting will nevertheless be recorded for all-time having been entered into eBird and counted on the Buffalo Ornithological Society’s October Count in Section 11. What conservation monitoring and citizen science programs do you participate in?
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