Dead Mouse
This looks like a White-footed Mouse, and it also looks like a cat kill. My dog Zach located it for us, immediately picking up the scent from probably over 50 feet away. A dead rodent with puncture wounds to the body that is left in the snow seems like a cat’s play toy to me. Other mammals or birds would have scooped it up for a meal and made sure to go back for it, even if they had to drop it. This occurs many, many times…millions upon millions…to small birds and mammals each day because of cats. They kill billions each year for no reason whatsoever apart from their own instincts....
Read MoreJanuary Sunset
Another January day, another impressive Stratford Point sunset. These gorgeous shades are from Thursday evening. This time we had a lot more blue and pink in the air on the clouds with the glowing orange and reds really confined to the distant horizon. We were striving for subjects apart from the lighthouse, but…not bad. Can you tell we need something to shoot? Winter does bring some beautiful avian visitors, but these colors are so very welcome – as is the continually rising sun and lengthening days. Our extremely busy upcoming field season is getting closer and...
Read MoreRed-breasted Mergansers
These Red-breasted Mergansers were enjoying some diving and feeding on another lovely January day as our temperatures have risen back to above-normal…and certainly a far more comfortable setting than the past two winters. Waters are opening up once again and snow is melting here in the Northeast. Their crazy “hair”, or shaggy crest, makes them a little easier to identify from a distance. Did you know they are the fastest duck ever recorded? They can zip by at incredible speeds passing 70, 80 or even 90MPH with their long, sleek body slicing directly through the air....
Read MoreStratford Point Sunset
This was last night’s magnificent sunset at Stratford Point in Stratford, Connecticut looking towards the lighthouse and then our office building. We added some scenery in the form of ~12 inches of windblown snow from the blizzard last weekend. There are open areas and drifts to a few feet deep, and several Horned Larks were flying around taking advantage of the bare ground while these were taken. Scott Kruitbosch Conservation & Outreach Coordinator
Read MoreCitizen Science Update; HWA Survey Results
This past Saturday, staff from RTPI and the Chautauqua Watershed Conservancy, along with JCC students and community volunteers, conducted a Hemlock Woolly Adelgid survey on the Cassadaga Creek Preserve in the Town of Stockton, NY. This preserve is a high priority monitoring site because it has one of the highest densities of hemlocks out of all of the CWC preserves, and also because it’s position along a stream creates a potential corridor by which birds and other wildlife could potentially transfer the invasive Hemlock Woolly Adelgid insect pest. As you may glean from the photograph in...
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