The Buzz
The pollinators are certainly enjoying the blooming flower gardens at RTPI! Pay us a visit soon to see what the buzz is all about! You can enjoy a walk on our nature trails, admire the Birds in Art exhibition, and naturally experience original work by Roger Tory Peterson while you’re here!
Read MoreProject Wild America Youth Ambassadors Program 2017
Roger Tory Peterson – inspired by Jamestown’s wild side during his youth – went on to become a world renowned naturalist. For the third consecutive summer, RTPI employed a cohort of local high school and college students as “Project Wild America (PWA) Youth Ambassadors” to follow in Peterson’s footsteps by working alongside our conservation staff monitoring and raising public awareness about Jamestown’s unique and vital natural resources. Check out the highlights from this year’s PWA program on their website and Facebook page, and stay tuned for more detailed reporting of what...
Read MoreLaurel Sphinx Moth Caterpillar
This Laurel Sphinx Moth (sphinx kalmiae) caterpillar – photographed by Twan Leenders in Jamestown, NY – definitely deserves to be in the limelight – it actually appears to emanate lime light! Roger Tory Peterson’s fascination with backyard nature began with the moths and birds that he discovered in what is now our own backyard! What amazing creatures await your acquaintance?
Read MoreThe Great Spangled Fritillary!
The Great Spangled Fritillary (Speyeria cybele) and other native butterflies provide added splashes of color on summer days as they flit about our flower gardens, parks and roadsides. Butterflies don’t need much to thrive in our immediate vicinity. As long as you take extra care to plant native flowering plants that provide healthy foods for these animals (rather than non-native ornamental plants that don’t offer such benefits to our insects) and don’t spray pesticides, butterflies will be there to brighten your day (and pollinate your other flowers and veggies)!
Read MoreBicolored Antbird
Here’s a catch made during my recent research trip to Costa Rica. Not a neotropical migrant this time, but a local resident species. This unusual-looking fellow is a Bicolored Antbird (Gymnopithys leucaspis), one of several so-called “ant-birds” that are usually found only in the vicinity of army ant swarms. All day long these birds follow the ants -at a safe distance- and expertly capture insects that are flushed, but not caught, by the invading army.
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