eBird the New Year
If you have yet to join our partners at eBird as a citizen scientist please do so in 2015! This free global database will forever store your bird sightings for you and your friends to enjoy and researchers and conservationists to use to protect and save the very species you are seeing. It is a mutually beneficial contribution to science and our feathered friends. Can you imagine how high Roger Tory Peterson’s life list would have been? He would have had hundreds of thousands of checklists from every corner of the Earth. Please make eBird one of your New Year’s Resolutions!
Read MoreWood Duck (Aix sponsa)
I photographed this drake Wood Duck (Aix sponsa) from afar yesterday so as not to disturb it. As you can see it is looking right at home in a forested suburban pond. Many duck species are starting to appear more frequently in our area as we enter the autumn waterfowl season. We will be sure to share some of our finds with all of you. What new fall arrivals have you spotted? Scott Kruitbosch Conservation & Outreach Coordinator
Read MoreSummer Snowy Owls
Here are the eBird Snowy Owl sightings for August and September 2014 only. It seems that there are some birds still lingering since the massive irruption. This year seems to have been another very strong breeding season for the species, albeit further north in some cases. Will they have a large movement south again? We will start to find out the answer in a couple of months. Meanwhile be on the lookout for these unexpected birds…
Read MoreBlack Swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes)
I have not seen many Black Swallowtails this year with a few here or there at best – what about you? I had been seeing an abundance of the common Eastern Tiger Swallowtail throughout the spring until their numbers plummeted to near zero in my experience Western New York throughout the summer. It continually astounds me how localized populations of even the more frequently seen species can be and how rapidly and unexpectedly their numbers can fluctuate. Nature is a delicate balance.
Read MoreSnowy Owls, 3.5 days of sightings March 2014
Snowy Owls heading up and out? I can’t be positive but here’s an interesting eBird map for 3.5 days of March 2014 sightings and they certainly look to be further north and clustered even more tightly around some of the major bodies of water. Please keep logging them so we can follow their movement back!
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