Baby Snapping Turtle
It’s ‘Meet Your Neighbours’ Monday! Here we have a baby Snapping Turtle (Chelydra serpentina) – photographed by RTPI president Twan Leenders in Jamestown, NY. Most folks are at least somewhat familiar with these short-tempered freshwater turtles, but have you ever seen one so small?
Read MoreTaking Time for Turtles
The weather is finally warming up in the northeast and the first basking turtles are out. Soon they will start moving towards favorite wetlands or preferred egg-laying sites, risking their lives as they cross our roads. Please slow down and avoid hitting these animals – no matter how tough they may appear, they are no match for a fast moving car. Even straddling a turtle with your wheels will often cause it to hit the underside of your car if you’re moving at a decent clip. Please stop, if you can safely do so, and gently help the turtle cross in the direction it is headed. Many...
Read MoreDiamondback Terrapin
Here’s a belated post for #worldturtleday yesterday and one of Twan’s favorites – a baby Diamondback Terrapin (Malaclemys terrapin) photographed for the Meet Your Neighbours global biodiversity project.
Read MoreParasitic Jaeger
Here are a couple greats photos of a Parasitic Jaeger (Stercorarius parasiticus) via our friend, superb birder and expert naturalist Frank Mantlik as seen from Stratford Point a couple of weeks ago. Long Island Sound has been alive with everything from humpback whale sightings to various uncommon or rare fish, turtles and birds. This Parasitic Jaeger looks like an intermediate morph juvenile, and you can see it chasing a juvenile Laughing Gull in one of the photos. We observed this behavior from at least a few individual Parasitic Jaegers over several days during feeding frenzies involving...
Read MoreProject Wild America Wrap Up
It’s 7am and about 55° on the morning of our last turtle trapping day with our Project Wild America Youth Ambassadors. I roll up to the Riverwalk to find all our students ready to give things a final go. All of us are beat from a long couple weeks of intensive trapping efforts and exploration of various sites along the Chadakoin River. However, we each feel accomplished with how many different species we have found and the impact we have made on the local community through the sharing of our findings and experiences. There is a dwindling optimism as we deploy our 35 foot seine net,...
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