Scorching May
The first half of the month of May 2015 was a quietly scorching one, with the heat turned all the way up in the Northeast. You may not believe it based on the outdoor feel of our day to day weather, but the entire region was far warmer than usual. While we did not have the extreme highs or actual heat waves, a stretch or days well into the 90s or anything particularly memorable, we have been consistently warmer than average for our highs and often above the long-term lows. The Northeast Regional Climate Center map here shows us the tale. The coolest part has been sections of Maine which were...
Read MoreTurkey Devouring Bittersweet
What a Thanksgiving feast this Wild Turkey enjoyed! While we almost always expect our flocks of turkeys to be feeding on the ground on seeds, invertebrates, or even amphibians and reptiles, they can sometimes find food in other places. They do fly, after all! If you have never seen a group roosting in a tree in your yard or quickly taking off I recommend you keep an eye out for it because it is always a spectacle. In this case I watched a few of them in a tree feeding on bittersweet berries… What a resourceful bird! There is a reason their population has exploded across the Northeast...
Read MoreFall hawk walk at Trout Brook Valley
On Saturday morning, September 20, I joined the Aspetuck Land Trust on a fall hawk walk with over 40 of their members and volunteers at the gorgeous Trout Brook Valley Preserve in Easton and Weston, Connecticut. This major 1,000+ acre conservation area permits passive recreation in the form of hiking, birding, biking, on-leash dog walking, photography and so forth. It is part of one of the largest contiguous areas of forest left in Fairfield County and is home to rare and important amphibians, plants, birds, mammals, reptiles, pollinators and more. Twan and I spent over a year creating a...
Read MoreNEPARC Annual Meeting
Last week I got the opportunity to attend my first NEPARC (Northeast Partners in Amphibian and Reptile Conservation) annual meeting held at Allegany State Park in Salamanca, New York. For those that aren’t familiar with the not for profit, NEPARC is a regional subset of PARC or Partners in Amphibian and Reptile Conservation. This organization forms inclusive partnerships with like-minded professionals and citizens that are dedicated to the conservation of amphibians, reptiles and their respective habitats throughout each region of the United States and beyond. PARC interacts with...
Read MoreBioBlitz this Friday-Saturday at SUNY College Lodge
We are only two days away from the blitz! On July 18-19, 2014 experts from across the region will take part in a ‘BioBlitz’ conducted by the Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History at the SUNY College Lodge Nature Preserve in Brocton. A BioBlitz is a 24-hour race to identify as many species of plants and animals of all kinds on the property and we invite you to join in the fun. Hear from the experts what they are finding or join us for a number of free and public walks and talks about some of the unique and exciting life that can be found on the approximately 200-acre property owned...
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