Cloudy with a Chance of Snowys
This is the first of a series of Winter Birds Forecasts focused on Connecticut and the surrounding region brought to you by Audubon Connecticut and the Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History and written by Patrick Comins, Director of Bird Conservation, Audubon Connecticut with Scott Kruitbosch, Conservation & Outreach Coordinator, Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History. Photos by Patrick Comins. A spate of early sightings of Snowy Owls in the Northeast has the birding community excited for a possible repeat of last year’s mega irruption that saw dozens of sightings of...
Read MorePacific screech owl (Megascops cooperi)
Where do you think this owl was found? And what species do you think it is? I can tell you that it is not from a neighborhood near most of you. If you said Costa Rica, good job! One would never know this was in the rainforest from the pitch black and gorgeously haunting feeling to this photo. The bird is a Pacific Screech-Owl (Megascops cooperi) as taken by RTPI Affiliate Sean Graesser. Scott Kruitbosch Conservation & Outreach Coordinator
Read MorePower lines and birds
Earlier this week I read a story about a bird rescue by the fire department from my hometown. It seems a gull had gotten tangled in fishing line – an unfortunately common occurrence easily avoided if everyone fishing would clean up after themselves – and then compounded the problem by getting stuck on power lines! I thought to myself, you know what? This must happen on a relatively frequent basis to various birds, especially the large ones that would perch on them. We discuss cats, buildings, pollution, and many other sources of avian mortality, but power systems are everywhere,...
Read MoreNorthern Saw-whet Owl (Aegolius acadicus)
This tiny bundle of Halloween fear and dread was photographed by RTPI Affiliate Sean Graesser as he had a very successful night of netting and banding Northern Saw-whet Owls (Aegolius acadicus) earlier this week in New Jersey. They are definitely on the move well now in the Mid-Atlantic.
Read MoreNetting the wrong owl and squirrel
What was going to be a quiet night of just trying to band migrant Northern Saw-whet Owls (Aegolius acadicus) turned into so much more. Tyler Christensen and I cut our mist nest lane configuration earlier in the day and returned around 6:45 to get things started. We use an audio lure to try and bring migrating Saw-whet Owls to the nets, so we started that and left the area. We decided to wait till 7:50 to check the nets again. We strolled down to the set-up to find no owls yet, but all of a sudden we heard some rustling. We both looked and saw a Southern Flying Squirrel (Glaucomys volans) run...
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