Boothe Park Hawk Watch 2015 Season
We are now well into the fall hawk watch season as sites across the country are staffed by citizen scientists engaged in counting raptors heading south for the winter. Various hawk, falcon, vulture, eagle, and kite species plus birds like the Osprey, Northern Harrier and even some owls can be tallied on conducive flight days at migratory hotspots often situated along ridges or at the edge of a body of water. Counting these birds helps keep track of raptor populations on an international scale, gauging the health of these important predator species that have often been threatened by human...
Read MoreSpiny Softshell Turtle Male
Here we have one of those tiny Eastern Spiny Softshell Turtle (Apalone spinifera) males blending in so perfectly as it rests on the side of the Chadakoin River in downtown Jamestown, New York. As Elyse and I observed this individual I snapped off a few photos, but we never noticed something else going on here. Have you? There is a second male facing the camera also basking in the sunshine, looking like some of the jagged shore. He was a cool editing surprise! Our work in monitoring the species will continue through the autumn season with more to come in 2016. Scott Kruitbosch Conservation...
Read MoreGrasshopper Sparrow
I photographed this Grasshopper Sparrow (Ammodramus savannarum) last week on a dreary and foggy morning in grasslands known to be a spring migratory site for the species. It was busy feeding in the mist, generally avoiding any picturesque views, as is typical for the species. It had even been singing the previous day! RTPI staff documented confirmed breeding of Henslow’s Sparrows and Grasshopper Sparrows at the Chautauqua County/Jamestown Airport (KJHW) during the summer of 2013. Both species are listed as New York endangered species with the Henslow’s Sparrow classified as ‘threatened’ and...
Read MoreSurvey Work Continues
Call us crazy, but we have done it again: bundled ourselves up and trudged around in knee deep snow to survey for the deadly Hemlock Woolly Adelgid. This time, our JCC/CWC/RTPI survey team traveled down to Warren County to visit the Hatch Run Conservation Demonstration Area for the second year in a row. This site is loaded with Eastern Hemlock trees that make up a beautiful and valuable riparian zone between the streams and upland forests. We are happy to report that we didn’t find the pest we were after (which is a good thing!) and being in that particular site made us really think....
Read MoreKentucky Warbler Recapture and Cabo Blanco Birds
The first session of our fourth year at Cabo Blanco is in the books. Cabo Blanco is Costa Rica’s first national preserve, established over fifty years ago. The preserve is mostly one generation of forest that has re-grown over a 60-year period. It was once all primary forest, but was cut down for farmland. We start the morning walking up a winding trail to our banding station tucked away near a few fallen trees. Along trails we’ve secretly cut are twenty well-placed mist nests to catch a wide variety of avifauna that uses the preserves habitat. Once we reach the base camp every morning we...
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