Short-eared Owl Camouflage
I can’t understand why the Short-eared Owl has this plumage…it’s really tough to tell from these photos! You can also see the bird did not enjoy yesterday’s late afternoon snow, sleet, rain mix. I’m glad so many people have been coming by to enjoy watching our occasional owl at Stratford Point, and most are being very kind and respectful. Please keep it up! Stay on our trails and keep your distance while letting the owl hunt and fly around. It may end up providing terrific views if you stand in place considering how active it is at certain (varying) times. Scott...
Read MoreThe Search for HWA Begins
Join us this Friday afternoon for our first hemlock woolly adelgid survey of the season! As a part of the Hemlock Conservation of the High Allegheny Plateau Project, led by the U.S. Forest Service and The Nature Conservancy, RTPI and JCC adopted South Valley State Forest to survey and contribute information to these agencies as well as the Department of Environmental Conservation. Join us as we survey two sites on the state forest lands. We will meet in the RTPI parking lot promptly at 12:30 to carpool and meet on-site around 1:00pm. For those meeting on-site, please meet near the bridge on...
Read MoreShort-eared Owl
You have seen a lot of Snowy Owl posts from me during this terrific irruptive season, and they are still with us in early 2018. However, I was lucky enough to enjoy this Short-eared Owl (Asio flammeus) actively hunting yesterday afternoon at Stratford Point. The bird may have just joined us that day as it was certainly very conspicuous, and it seemed quite hungry – though it was exceptionally talented at hunting with multiple kills! Short-eared Owls are ‘endangered’ in New York and their wintering population is ‘threatened’ in Connecticut. Undisturbed grassland...
Read MoreMarbled Godwits by Neil Rizos – A Sculpture with Prestige
This gorgeous sculpture – entitled “Marbled Godwits” by Neil Rizos – is the recent winner of both The Allied Artists of America Marilyn Newmark Award and the American Plains Artists Sculpture Award. Of his creation, Rizos wrote: “Marbled Godwits are large cinnamon-colored shorebirds that nest on the northern Great Plains in summer. When they leave the prairies, they migrate to coastal regions from Virginia to Texas and from Oregon to Mexico. They feed in shallow water along the shoreline or on tidal mudflats, probing deeply with their long up-curved bills. This sculpture...
Read MoreGive the Gift of Art this Holiday Season; “Neil Rizos: the Art of Exploration”
Of this particular piece, Rizos wrote: “This is a portrait of a specific tree in the Adirondack Mountains – one I’ve painted many times. Labels and concepts certainly have their place (as in this essay) but once the mind suspends the practice of attaching labels and concepts, the world is experienced in a very different manner. The first concept to dissolve is that of Beginning and Ending, at which point all is recognized as a constantly transforming whole with no distinct boundaries – more easily seen in the ocean, perhaps, than the forest.” A portion of all sales benefit RTPI’s Art,...
Read More
