More Balloons
Another day, another pile of trash removed from the beaches by one of us. This time CT DEEP’s Rebecca Foster snapped this shot of all the garbage, especially balloons, that she took off Stratford’s Long Beach during one walk! As she noted you could probably do this multiple times a day at this point of the year and come up with the same sort of pile. Summer brings all sorts of parties and events and very little thought applied to where those balloons, or the rest of the trash that can blow away or is tossed aside, end up. Those of you reading this are already very environmentally...
Read MoreMagnificent Bryozoan
And now for something completely different: a brick! More specifically, a brick with a colony of microscopic aquatic animals on it. This strange blob is a colonial freshwater bryozoan, also known as the Magnificent Bryozoan (Pectinatella magnifica). The brick is an old, classic Jamestown street paver. Both were found during our survey of the Chadakoin River in Jamestown today, as part of our Project Wild America youth ambassador program. I think this image illustrates nicely what we are finding during our surveys: at first glance the habitat looks run down, trash-filled and hardly worth a...
Read MoreBeach Trash
This photo and information via one of our colleagues, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Shorebird Technician Audrey Wiese: “PLEASE dispose of your trash properly! This is the amount of trash I collected on ONE beach after only 3 hours! If you bring trash in take it out, if you buy plastic water bottles or balloons dispose of them PROPERLY! Loose trash on a beach does nothing for us and has a lasting effect on OUR environment and the animals that live in it.” That doesn’t seem like a very happy birthday to me…and congratulations to the grad as you help pollute the world...
Read MoreGarbage Mentality
It is one cup left on one rock in front of one ocean, and it certainly looks insignificant in this photo, but does the Atlantic really need one more piece of trash? If you are heading to the shore to fish, swim, build sandcastles, enjoy the wildlife, whatever your day may be, please do not leave anything behind. Every little bit does count. I am continually astounded at how many people trash their trash wherever they please around any open water as if the endless horizon will simply swallow it up, and I plan on making this more of a point going forward given all that we at RTPI do to help...
Read MoreFish Crow Marauders
This is a marauding Fish Crow (Corvus ossifragus), as identified by voice, flying through a neighborhood and searching for nests to raid. If you have a lot of experience with them you can get used to picking out the slightly smaller Fish vs. American Crow as well. Whether it is tiny hatchlings or developing eggs the many nests that fill our lands, from forest to shore, are often extremely tempting targets for corvids at this point in the season. Both a male and female Baltimore Oriole were aggressively attacking this bird until it vacated the area. Groups of Fish Crow are an enormous threat...
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