Getting Started with Project Wild America
Although I’ve lived in Jamestown for a number of years, last Tuesday was the first time I’d seen a spiny softshell turtle up close. It was just basking in the sun with a shiny shell and body that sort of resembled a large gray pancake. I was pretty excited to see this goofy-looking turtle in the Chadakoin over by the Gateway Center. Spiny Softshell turtles are just one unique species that lives along the Chadakoin River here in Jamestown, and this species of turtle is one of several species that will be monitored by the Roger Tory Peterson Institute’s Project Wild America program this...
Read MoreTeaching the Teachers
Throughout the past few years of working for RTPI, I’ve heard the phrase “teaching the teachers” a number of times. From my understanding, at one time this meant equipping school teachers with the proper materials and knowledge to take their classes out into nature and teach their students place-based education. RTPI education staff traveled extensively to carry out teacher workshops and engage students in learning about the natural world. As the years have gone on, the approach to carrying out that phrase has shifted, but the focus has remained: passing our knowledge and...
Read MoreCamera Blunders
During this time of the year, when bird migrations are happening, salamander eggs are growing and plants are budding, it doesn’t take long to kill a camera battery from lots of activity. And once that battery is dead, it doesn’t do any good when you are headed into the field once again! I discovered on Monday morning as RTPI Alex Shipherd and I were headed up to the Chautauqua County-Jamestown Airport, that my camera battery was done for. Alex’s camera was ready to go, and I at least had my phone and we took our field scope with as well. As you can see, we found Eastern...
Read MoreBuilding the Future
Here we have a couple of adorable little ones learning by doing and constructing baby Piping Plover chicks during an outreach event for the Bridgeport WildLife Guards with Audubon Connecticut and the Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History this past Saturday. We were one of the exhibits during a celebration of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics) for children of all ages at Housatonic Community College in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The kids are building a hatchling out of a marshmallow, pretzels, chocolate and raisins. While they are building this bird we are...
Read MoreAutumn Field Surveys
While the field season never completely ends, projects shift and our attention will soon be focused on other seasonally appropriate surveys during the upcoming cooler months. As the temperatures continue to drop as well as the leaves, our stream work surveying for the elusive Eastern Hellbender (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis) is winding down. This week we got out to take more samples and carry out more rock lift surveys. So far we have found that the stream we have been working in has a good number of Mudpuppies (Necturus maculosus) and has a lot of interesting macroinvertebrates, all of...
Read More
