Deer Overbrowsing
I may not be an expert on vegetation, especially ornamental, but something seems…not right…here. You have probably seen similar sights in the last couple of months now that the ice and snow have fully cleared as White-tailed Deer did a number on anything they could eat in the Northeast. Everything just above their head is bright and green, and parts below are bare and brown. Our overpopulation of deer wipes the forest floors clean to the point where they must pick at what we could call scraps like these in our neighborhoods. Some people may object to wolves in their backyards,...
Read MoreSnowy-bellied Hummingbird (Amazilia edward)
This is an appropriately named tropical hummingbird for what we have seen in the Northeast in the past several weeks: the Snowy-bellied Hummingbird (Amazilia edward). This species was captured infrequently during the early years of banding at the Cocobolo Nature Reserve in Panama. The Rufous Hummingbird, another Amazilia species, was the most commonly caught hummingbird. Things have changed in the past few seasons, and the Snowy-bellied is the most commonly captured Amazilia at Cocobolo. Sean suspects the main reason for this shift is the maturation of the forest where banding takes place....
Read More
