Late Lady
This American Lady was a lovely mid-November sight earlier this week, basking in the sun on a still warmer than average afternoon. You can see what month it is by how low that sun angle is striking the butterfly, casting a long shadow as the days continue to get shorter and darker. Are you still seeing any lepidoptera out there? Scott Kruitbosch Conservation & Outreach Coordinator
Read MoreSnow Buntings
It is early enough in the avian wintering season that both the earth and the birds – in this case, Snow Buntings (Plectrophenax nivalis) – are brown. We do not have a solid snow cover yet, and it is amazing how well this plumage is designed to help them blend in to the ground. The Snow Bunting camouflage looks like brown grass and, somehow, a rocky, sandy and rough earth, with their wings showing off the darker pattern of what the tundra and short grasslands look like now. Notice how well these birds keep themselves just off the surface even while engaged in feeding, hiding their...
Read MoreSnail Attack
If you are in the mood for more Halloween madness, I witnessed this attack about a month ago on a sidewalk during a rainstorm. It looks like a snail had run into some bad luck with a harvester. It happened right as I came upon the snail, first seeing something in my viewfinder as I was about to snap the photo…what are those long, thin, moving…legs?! Oh my… Scott Kruitbosch Conservation & Outreach Coordinator
Read MoreStriped Skunk Digging
Better late than never! Here is that Striped Skunk frenzied grub feeding video that I promised you. That HD footage is in normal speed…they are just that fast with those claws! Scott Kruitbosch Conservation & Outreach Coordinator
Read MoreSkunk Showdown
This…this is no good. In between all of the time the pictured Striped Skunk spent foraging, digging zealously for grubs in the wet soil, it had an encounter with a local cat. I did not think this showdown was going to end well for the neighborhood feline to say the very least. I personally know this cat to be a bold, inquisitive and mostly fearless individual – in other words, a cat. I focused on the skunk in the above photo and the cat in a subsequent shot having to keep the aperture wide open in the low evening light. You can see the skunk is entirely engrossed in its snacks....
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