Curu Wildlife Refuge
Curu Wildlife Refuge is home to endless amounts of trees fruiting with coconuts, mangrove estuaries, and rows upon rows of mango trees that have long since forgotten how to fruit. Amongst one of these patches of mango trees is our other banding station, and tucked along the trails that bisect a unique edge habitat of White Mangrove trees are our nets. We placed the 22 nets strategically so they would bisect the many attributes of this unique habitat. We catch a wide variety of resident species, whose unique attributes and colors blend them into the harsh environment of this unique tropical...
Read MoreYellow-bellied Sapsucker Wells
This Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus varius) seems to have been fleeing the scene of the crime! Winter is a good time to walk around and keep your eyes open for signs of birds and other wildlife, like these tightly-packed wells skillfully drilled by the hundreds through the bark of trees – a Sapsucker signature. It seems like there have been more reports of Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers visiting feeders than usual this winter, though I admit I do not have data to support that gut feeling. Have you had any at home? Scott Kruitbosch Conservation & Outreach...
Read MoreNorthern Cardinals in the Snow
I photographed this pair of Northern Cardinals feeding on a cold and snowy afternoon yesterday, their colors piercing the dull and dark January landscape. All sorts of birds are moving off the snow-covered and frozen earth to feed in the trees on berries and seeds. Scott Kruitbosch Conservation & Outreach Coordinator
Read MoreThanks Attendees! Collaborative Forest Pest Project Information Session
A big “thank you!” to everyone who attended our Collaborative Forest Pest Project Information Session this past Thursday night at the Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History in Jamestown, New York. Here you can see RTPI Conservation Technician Elyse Henshaw who did a terrific job educating over 20 members of the public on devastating forest pests like Hemlock Woolly Adelgid (HWA), an aphid-like insect targeting Eastern Hemlock trees, and Emerald Ash Borer (EAB), a wood boring insect targeting all of our Ash trees. As these pests threaten Chautauqua County organizations...
Read MoreOak leaves falling on Mallards
What do you believe the birds think as the world is literally falling around them? The bright, vibrant existence most of them are born into during the spring and the summer suddenly fades in the Northeast with cooling temperatures, shortening days and leaves floating to the earth from increasingly bare trees. Here is their reality collapsing further on a crisp November autumn day as these Mallards feed and contemplate, possibly wondering when the process will begin to reverse.
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