Nature Through the Lenses of Tweens and Teens
Jamestown Community College’s summer camp programs; Wee College, Kids College, and Tweens 2 Teens College provide area youth with the opportunity to explore a variety of classes that will both entertain their hobbies and interests, and engage them in the learning process. Students that participated in the Tweens 2 Teens College – Nature Through the Lens class explored the JCC campus and adjacent woodlot through the medium of digital photography and were challenged to capture images of organisms that they were unfamiliar with. Back in the computer lab, the students worked to...
Read MoreThe Hellbender Search Continues
Sunshine is abundant, streams are low, clear and warm, and traps are smelly and baited…wait, what was that last part?! As the summer season is slated to officially begin this Monday, the field season is already underway and our hellbender search within Chautauqua County has begun once again. As you may recall, last fall we worked with Robin Foster, PhD candidate at the University of Buffalo, to take eDNA samples from a number of potentially suitable sites to be tested. In case you aren’t familiar, eDNA is short for environmental DNA and is a reliable method in detecting even...
Read MoreBlue Dasher
It is odonate season, finally! Our various dragonflies and damselflies are emerging and migrating our way now that there is plenty of food in the air. Here is an up-close look at the Blue Dasher (Pachydiplax longipennis). While we at RTPI do not have any specific dragonfly monitoring programs underway this year we will be recording them during all of our other work in New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and New Jersey. This includes programs such as Project Wild America and Bridgeport WildLife Guards, from avian and reptile study sites, Natural History Atlas locations, at Stratford Point and...
Read MoreWelcome PWA Crew Leaders!
Please join us in welcoming Heather Zimba and Adolf Zollinger as this year’s Project Wild America Youth Ambassador crew leaders! Heather and Adolf will be leading our high school ambassadors throughout the summer as our natural history studies and educational outreach continues within the city of Jamestown. They are both excellent students involved in Jamestown Community College’s environmental science program and each have worked with the Roger Tory Peterson Institute in the past. Adolf worked as a crew member during last year’s iteration of Project Wild America and...
Read MoreCocobolo Nature Reserve Monitoring
I’m leaving Saturday for another round of research and monitoring on the endangered Limosa Harlequin Frog (Atelopus limosus) monitoring with Alex Shepack, Michael Roy, and Abel Batista in the wonderful Cocobolo Nature Reserve in Eastern Panama. We’re looking for more clues on the enigmatic behavior of the deadly amphibian chytrid fungus in the area and the mechanisms that allow some local frogs to survive. In addition we’ll be setting up opportunities for student research on the project through the Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History and Yale...
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