RTPI is Recruiting Crew Leaders for the Summer 2018 Project Wild America Youth Ambassadors Program
As part of its ongoing efforts to better understand the natural history of our region and promote environmental literacy and stewardship, the Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History is excited to offer its Project Wild America (PWA) Youth Ambassador program in Jamestown NY for a fourth year. As part of this program, RTPI is recruiting interested area high school students as youth ambassadors and college students as ambassador leaders to represent Project Wild America in the Greater Jamestown area. These students will work alongside RTPI conservation and education staff...
Read MoreMonarchs Moving
Anecdotal Monarch reports continue to be encouraging across North America! From what I have read on social media and heard from friends plenty of people are spotting sizable numbers of the species even still now in November as they make their way to Mexico. Do YOU have anything to report? Scott Kruitbosch RTPI Conservation & Outreach Coordinator
Read MoreBlack Swallowtail Butterfly
Here’s a Black Swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes) shot from this summer to add a little to the mood of our Halloween week. These delightfully bold butterflies have such a terrific contrast to them. While I have not seen any of them recently, I certainly have seen many other butterfly species still on the wing thanks to such a warm October. These include still sizable numbers of Painted Lady, Monarch, Common Buckeye, Orange Sulphur, and more. Do you still have any butterflies in your yard? Any flower you can find now is going to attract them! Scott Kruitbosch Conservation & Outreach...
Read MoreField Sparrow
Chautauqua County certainly has an abundance of old farm fields, but we should be hearing more Field Sparrows (Spizella pusilla), and other grassland birds, singing in the fields and other open areas across our region. The prairie habitat that once covered our landscape is long gone, but old, overgrown fields and hay fields provide a decent substitute for grassland birds. Even though their substitute habitat provides most of what these animals need, management practices can be challenges for them. Timing the mowing of these fields is important to protect nesting birds, and cutting in early...
Read MoreMonarch chrysalis
To whom does this stunning, sea-green chrysalis belong? Why, to the lovely “Danaus plexippus” of course! Before the monarch caterpillar inside initiated it’s metamorphic transformation, it would have fattened up on milkweed leaves in preparation for the process. Once it emerges, the adult butterfly has a long journey to Mexico ahead. Quite a remarkable life cycle; It’s no wonder that a young Roger Tory Peterson was fascinated with our local Lepidopterans!
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