Heavy and low avian migration in Jamestown
This past Wednesday, October 15, I was outside in downtown Jamestown, New York, for much of the night. An area of low pressure had moved by earlier in the day and precipitation had cleared. Clouds were thinning and moving east. There are plenty of unnatural noises to hear on a typical night in the City of Jamestown – music, people shouting, vehicles and often large trucks passing by. There was also an incessant yet subtle chorus of noises coming from the low levels of the sky in the form of avian flight calls! Birds were moving south and in strong numbers with almost endless peeps and...
Read MoreSmoke and fire
Fall foliage can take on so many appearances, especially when combined with the sky above us. This scene has a look of fire and smoke as the leaves continue to change and the sky fills with lake effect clouds in the Chautauqua-Allegheny region while temperatures continue to drop. Autumn has arrived. Be sure you make the time to get outside to enjoy it because it does not last long.
Read MoreSunny Pennsylvania woods
It was difficult to find the sun on this cold autumn weekend thanks to the lake effect rain and clouds coming off of Lake Erie. I managed to find some light in Pennsylvania, making the woodlands feel all the warmer in the still strong sunshine. There should still be a few more weeks before we see any snow but the birds are beginning to reflect the imminent change with kinglets, always a sign of October to me, filling habitats like this.
Read MoreDredging in Lake Erie
This past weekend while out at Barcelona Harbor, I witnessed some of the ongoing work being done to deepen the waterways within Lake Erie for the purposes of maintaining navigation channels for federal, commercial and recreational boats. Through the past few years, the channels have filled in significantly with sediments and debris from the increasingly intensifying storms, such as Superstorm Sandy, and the rate of erosion taking place within the area’s streams feeding into the great lake. With the growing risk of shoreline flooding and safety issues arising for boaters, it was...
Read MoreCommon Terns on Lake Erie
Now that we are a partner in the Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds I am working every day to coordinate our volunteer and monitoring efforts in conservation and education across Connecticut focusing on Piping Plovers, Least Terns, American Oystercatchers and Common Terns among all other shorebirds, long-legged waders and terns. I was very happy to enjoy one of our target species this past Sunday as I saw at least 85 Common Terns off Dunkirk Harbor here in Western New York. These “Commons”, along with nine or more Caspian Terns, were feeding in Lake Erie and resting on...
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