Moon Work
We at the Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History do not only work during the day! I am not just talking about sitting behind our computers all night either. Moon work, or nocturnal field surveys, will be undertaken throughout the spring and summer seasons for species like the Common Nighthawk (Chordeiles minor), a New York species of Special Concern that nests in the Jamestown area, and for moths of all types. Those moths were a favorite area of study for Roger Tory Peterson, and we are looking to expand our knowledge on them as well as all the dragonflies, butterflies and other...
Read MoreDiurnal Barred Owl
Recently I heard a Barred Owl calling during the mid-afternoon on a warm, beautiful day. It did not take but a few minutes for an even closer bird to start asking, “Who cooks for you?” in response. They were relatively close to me but out of sight in neighboring yards. This photo is from a past sighting of a diurnal Barred Owl during the early spring when the leaves were already popping. Keep an ear open for these nocturnal neighbors all day and night! Scott Kruitbosch Conservation & Outreach Coordinator
Read MoreChuck-will’s-widow (Antrostomus carolinensis)
This Chuck-will’s-widow (Antrostomus carolinensis), a female, was captured and banded in Costa Rica by RTPI Affiliate Sean Graesser, a first for the site list at Cabo Blanco, Costa Rica’s first national park. What makes the species special to us is a great birding memory from the spring of 2012. One early May morning I was walking the property at Stratford Point in Stratford, Connecticut, conducting an avian site survey. It was a temperate but cloudy, drizzly and foggy morning, with some confused migrant birds overshooting their likely targets, pushing into Long Island Sound and...
Read MoreCommon Tent-making Bats (Uroderma bilobatum)
This was the largest group of Common Tent-making Bats (Uroderma bilobatum) that RTPI Affiliate Sean Graesser had ever seen in Panama!
Read MoreMottled Owl (Strix virgata)
You never know what is under the leaves, and in the tropics that sort of sentiment gets bumped up a few levels of size and greatness. Here we have a well-hidden Mottled Owl (Strix virgata) as photographed at Cabo Blanco in Costa Rica by RTPI Affiliate Sean Graesser. It is not too different from the Barred Owl that could be roosting in your pine tree right now!
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