Coastal Adventure
The other week I had the opportunity to adventure out to Connecticut and Rhode Island for a week of learning. As you all know, we have a number of projects running in coastal Connecticut monitoring shorebirds and educating the public about the many federally and state listed species that reside there, and we have some wonderful RTPI staff stationed there as well. On my trip I was able to spend some time with Scott Kruitbosch, our Conservation and Outreach Coordinator, looking at several of the sites where projects for shorebirds, migrating raptors and coastal remediation are taking place. It...
Read MoreProject Wild America Wrap Up
It’s 7am and about 55° on the morning of our last turtle trapping day with our Project Wild America Youth Ambassadors. I roll up to the Riverwalk to find all our students ready to give things a final go. All of us are beat from a long couple weeks of intensive trapping efforts and exploration of various sites along the Chadakoin River. However, we each feel accomplished with how many different species we have found and the impact we have made on the local community through the sharing of our findings and experiences. There is a dwindling optimism as we deploy our 35 foot seine net,...
Read MoreHeating Up
Things are heating up! We are near the hottest part of the calendar year, and this week will be another warm one in the Northeast. All of the hot temperatures and sunny days are only making it livelier for butterflies, reptiles, wildflowers, dragonflies, feeding early migrant birds…there is a lot to see outdoors right now! Our staff is hard at work in active field projects across multiple states every day of the week, educating children of all ages as well as adults, discovering unexpected, rare or endangered life, and making a difference in pushing forward a passion for the...
Read MoreLightning Strike
There has been a lot of inclement weather lately! One good thing about all of the heavy rain and thunderstorms is that our waterways will be filled for reptiles, amphibians, odonates, and many other creatures. It may not make our work easier – for example, the Spiny Softshell Turtles are going to be a tough study for now – but it is certainly a far better fate than the droughts of places like California. Thankfully for them we have signs of a strengthening El Niño, the periodic warming of the Pacific Ocean’s surface temperatures, that may already be giving them slight...
Read MorePile o’ Turtles
Turtles, turtles and more turtles! That was my view of a small section of the Chadakoin River last week as over a dozen spiny softshell turtles (Apalone spinifera) lined the exposed concrete and sandbars at the river’s edge. These girls and little boy hauled themselves out of the water and piled themselves onto the concrete debris left in the river from some form of development. While this seems like an unlikely place for these turtles to live, they appear to be well adapted to their urban habitat. We are excited to have the opportunity to begin studying these Muppet-like turtles and...
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