February Snowy Owls
This blog entry is a companion to the Winter Bird Forecasts brought to you by Audubon Connecticut and the Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History. Be sure to check out Winter Bird Forecast #5! Oh my, has it been cold and snowy or what? The last month was historic for some of our region as Boston and many other areas of Massachusetts have been buried in feet of snow. Parts of Connecticut and New York have been inundated as well and everyone across the Northeast has felt frigid air with barely any days above freezing, totally lacking any significant thaws. It is the definition of...
Read MoreRough-legged Hawks Irrupting
This is a companion blog entry to the Winter Bird Forecast by Audubon Connecticut and the Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History. Be sure to watch for our fifth forecast, coming soon! Wherever you are across the Northeast you have likely seen or read a report about a Rough-legged Hawk nearby this winter. This beautiful raptor, available in both a light and dark color morph, has irrupted across a broad swath of the upper parts of the Lower 48. The wintering specialty is at home in open and coastal areas such as marshes, grasslands, airports – hey, a lot of the same places the...
Read MoreNorthern Harrier January sightings
What is wrong with this January eBird map of Northern Harrier sightings? It certainly seems to be very well correlated to human population. Nevertheless I definitely believe there are more birds out there that are not being entered into eBird. My friends in the Chautauqua-Allegheny region know we at RTPI are surveying for Northern Harriers and Short-eared Owls this winter for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, with Chautauqua County being our target area. While some neighboring areas, such as Allegheny National Forest, have no sightings as expected, I would have to...
Read MoreJanuary Snowy Owl Update
This blog entry is a companion to the Winter Bird Forecasts brought to you by Audubon Connecticut and the Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History. Be sure to check out Winter Bird Forecast #3! As we enter the New Year we in the Mid-Atlantic and New England have been feeling mostly below-average temperatures as the weather finally reflects the climate more than it has. Snow cover is certainly starting to shape up over the landscape and birds like the Snowy Owl are now camouflaged against our earth and skies. I wanted to see where we were in this winter’s Snowy Owl irruption,...
Read MoreCurrent Snow Depth
Many snowmobile trails are open and folks are out on their sleds, hiking and skiing across the wintry landscape in Chautauqua County. Here’s our current regional snow depth – this is more like it! Have you used our educational, conservation-minded and natural history based winter trails cell phone tour? http://rtpi.org/conservation/winter-trails-cell-phone-tour/
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