Field Sparrow
The fields are alive with the sound of music…and in this case it was the voices of many Field Sparrows (Spizella pusilla) singing on territory in the grasslands and open country across the region. Let’s all focus on keeping our open habitats healthy and available for birds like this! Development and unchecked regrowth of forests without natural wildfires will all but eliminate them otherwise while invasives, monocultures or chemicals can degrade them further. Sometimes we have to work to preserve nature after all we have done to modify our natural world. Scott Kruitbosch...
Read MorePrairie Warbler (Setophaga discolor)
Here’s a Throwback Thursday to a Prairie Warbler (Setophaga discolor) that I photographed several years ago. The species begins to return to us in the Northeast right abouttttt…now! I hope to be able to spot one or two in migration so that I can get some better shots and enjoy their buzzy, rising song. Look for them in scrub or shrub habitat, old fields, power line cuts, or even forests – just not the prairies. Scott Kruitbosch Conservation & Outreach Coordinator
Read MoreChipping Sparrow
This is a Chipping Sparrow (Spizella passerina), one of a few of the species I observed and photographed this past Thursday. The early spring sparrow migrants continue to pour through the region with dozens and dozens of Savannah Sparrows dominating any grasslands, fields, farms and open areas. The Eastern Towhees are calling out from shrub and scrub patches, yards, feeding stations and power line corridors. Winter friends like White-throated Sparrows and Dark-eyed Juncos are starting to wrap up their pushes north for the breeding season. The Field Sparrows have returned to nest right where...
Read MoreSanderling
Here we have a Sanderling (Calidris alba), a bird that spends its winter on our sandy beaches before heading to the High Arctic for the nesting season. They are often misidentified as Piping Plovers during migratory periods as both small, white shorebirds (in nonbreeding plumage for the Sanderling anyway) feed along the water like this. A rufous breeding plumage pattern takes over where the gray is, and by May these birds look unique and spectacular. So much change in so little time…and so much flight distance covered before they nest and head back to us later in the summer. If that...
Read MoreWall of Rainforest
Here’s an early morning look into the entrance of Rara Avis Preserve, what photographer RTPI Affiliate Sean Graesser always calls a breathtaking gaze at the entrance to a wall of rainforest. It is especially beautiful to look at on a cool, wet and cloudy March day.
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