Horseshoe Crabs
If you are on the Atlantic Coast during the late spring you may be fortunate enough to find Horseshoe Crabs during the breeding season. Early June, especially around a new or full moon, is a very busy time for these marine arthropods that are considering living fossils, having existed nearly unchanged for approximately 450 million years. These photos were taken at Stratford Point in Stratford, Connecticut, an important mating site at the mouth of the Housatonic River. The females will lay eggs on beaches like this one, some subsequently being eaten by migrant shorebirds. The most vivid...
Read MoreFish Crow Marauders
This is a marauding Fish Crow (Corvus ossifragus), as identified by voice, flying through a neighborhood and searching for nests to raid. If you have a lot of experience with them you can get used to picking out the slightly smaller Fish vs. American Crow as well. Whether it is tiny hatchlings or developing eggs the many nests that fill our lands, from forest to shore, are often extremely tempting targets for corvids at this point in the season. Both a male and female Baltimore Oriole were aggressively attacking this bird until it vacated the area. Groups of Fish Crow are an enormous threat...
Read MoreDigging Nests
Could it be that time already?! The abundant warmth and sunshine has been drawing the spiny softshell turtles out to bask, swim and now excavate! This big girl was digging away in the gravel, pitching big clods of dirt and stones with her powerful back legs working to create a safe nest hole to drop her eggs. Once the eggs are laid, the turtles will develop throughout the summer and hatch in late August and early September. Last summer we didn’t witness any little ones hatching as many of the nests were predated. But we’ve got our fingers crossed that this summer will prove to be...
Read MoreRobin on Nest
It may not feel like it now, but this photograph was snapped on a recent cold morning. Keeping those little ones warm on some of those chilly spring days is probably easier than it was for those American Robin parents that already fledged their young ones, fighting through April or even some of March. Have you seen fledglings running around squawking yet?
Read MoreKilldeer Eggs
First there was one, then two, then three, and today there are four!!! Aren’t they beautiful?! Jane Johnson Communications & Public Programs Coordinator
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