Buntings Beach
Can you detect the beachgoers in this photo? There are several Snow Buntings (Plectrophenax nivalis) very well camouflaged against the grass, stones, and sand as seen on the shore last week. Unfortunately there is also plenty of garbage in the shot, and let’s make another New Year’s resolution to clean up our waterways and habitats like this one as much as possible. This pollution has to end one of these years! We at RTPI certainly like Talkin’ Trash, and our Project Wild America Youth Ambassadors plus the Bridgeport WildLife Guards stay engaged in cleaning up our waterways...
Read MoreSnow Bunting Row
These Snow Buntings are all lined up and ready to launch to the north soon as they continue to molt into a brighter, whiter snowy color every day. Birds are getting their feathers set for spring and to look their best when finding a mate. What does this arrangement on the roof look like to you? Caption it!
Read MoreSnow Bunting (Plectrophenax nivalis)
While our winter raptor surveys have been rather quiet lately, we have caught glimpses of some other visitors from the high arctic: the Snow Bunting (Plectrophenax nivalis). Our intern, Alex Shipherd, and I have seen these small sparrow-like birds for the past several weeks hanging out around the airport eating grit off the road’s edge and waddling through the deep snow in the fields. I have to say these have become one of my favorite seasonal birds as they just look like winter! Elyse Henshaw Conservation Technician
Read MoreSnow Buntings
It is early enough in the avian wintering season that both the earth and the birds – in this case, Snow Buntings (Plectrophenax nivalis) – are brown. We do not have a solid snow cover yet, and it is amazing how well this plumage is designed to help them blend in to the ground. The Snow Bunting camouflage looks like brown grass and, somehow, a rocky, sandy and rough earth, with their wings showing off the darker pattern of what the tundra and short grasslands look like now. Notice how well these birds keep themselves just off the surface even while engaged in feeding, hiding their...
Read MoreSnow Bunting (Plectrophenax nivalis)
This Snow Bunting (Plectrophenax nivalis) was being blown around by the wind, as seen by those feathers flapping in the breeze. It is a beacon of white on beautiful sunny days against the blue sky. Have you been fortunate enough to find any this winter?
Read More
