RTPI 2016 Highlights
The Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History wishes you a very Happy New Year! Here are some of our most popular blog posts and memorable highlights of 2016 at RTPI… This Snowy Owl blog entry from last January claimed the #1 spot in 2016, and considering our logo, we feel this is very appropriate! Check out those eyes: http://rtpi.org/snowy-owl-eyes/ One of the more touching days of our year was a celebration of Noble Proctor’s life at a BioBlitz Challenge at Hammonasset Beach State Park in Madison, Connecticut on May 14. Noble Proctor was one of Roger Tory Peterson’s...
Read MoreStratford Point Reef Ball Expansion
RTPI provides fee-for-service environmental expertise and capacity to a variety of national organizations. We are currently involved in the long-term environmental clean-up effort of a historic trap and skeet shooting range on the Long Island Sound, carried out by the DuPont Corporation. Our staff monitors potential exposure of dabbling ducks and shorebirds to residual lead shot at Stratford Point, Connecticut, as part of a year-round and ongoing large remediation and coastal habitat restoration effort. This work was primarily conducted around the turn of the century, and it also removed...
Read MoreSnowy Owl Season
Welcome back to Snowy Owl season! I took these photographs of a very calm and sleepy Snowy Owl (Bubo scandiacus) today at Silver Sands State Park in Milford, Connecticut. One had been reported about a week ago in the area, though it was not seen again until the last couple of days. I was able to go over and briefly enjoy this bird sitting on a rock jetty along Long Island Sound with a few other birders. It was in the perfect place to be seen and not disturbed, and unknowing folks taking a walk or jogging were mostly on the nearby boardwalk and far enough away from the owl so that it did not...
Read MoreBanded Peregrine Falcon
Here is a recent flashback story for everyone on this lovely Friday. October is always a terrific month to find all sorts of raptors making their way south for a prolonged migration or dispersing from their nesting area to find acceptable wintering grounds. Peregrine Falcons (Falco peregrinus) continue to rebound from their demise due to pesticides in our region in the last century, taking up breeding sites on skyscrapers in major cities, under bridges on interstates, and even nest box platforms at locations like Dunkirk’s power plant on Lake Erie in our own Chautauqua County. Some of...
Read MoreOrange-crowned Warbler
This Orange-crowned Warbler (Oreothlypis celata) was a great surprise to see and photograph today after it was found at Stratford Point by my colleague Patrick Comins, Audubon Connecticut’s Director of Bird Conservation. They are an uncommon warbler even in some of the more common parts of their range, and a tough one to find in the Northeast thus far this fall. We were at the office this Saturday morning and afternoon for a staff and volunteer work party to plant more trees, grasses, and shrubs for birds, but the Orange-crowned seemed at home in the mugwort and existing grasslands,...
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