Wide Open Lake Erie
Thanks to El Niño’s strong influence on the position of the Pacific jet stream, the start of the 2015-2016 winter started more green than white here in Western New York. With only short spurts of cold air, Lake Erie has been staying warm and fueling small snow storms as systems move through. As the storms pass, we have been keeping an eye out for bird movement, as it has been pretty quiet up to this point. A couple weeks ago, JCC/RTPI intern Alex Shipherd and I took a trip to various points along the Lake Erie Plain to scope out waterfowl and winter raptors. As you can see Lake Erie is still...
Read MoreGreat Black-backed Gull
This Great Black-backed Gull was coming in for a water landing, but what I did not notice at this moment was that it had a free fish meal waiting for it. After it landed it snatched up this easy lunch and went off to try to find a way to eat it without being noticed by any friends. Winter is not the time to be sharing in the natural world. It is a difficult time for our wildlife to survive with harsh conditions making even consistent eating often all too rare. This bird is an adult, but the first-winter birds of many species of birds often suffer the most during these months. This recently...
Read MoreCommon Merganser
This Common Merganser was a recent sighting off the mouth of the Housatonic River via Stratford Point where it meets Long Island Sound, typically a point too far for the species. Several individuals had been hanging out here which was a little strange considering how warm it has been with completely open rivers – we do not even go below freezing at night! Birds are doing all sorts of odd things during this stretch, and we are only getting started…the Christmas Bird Count results are starting to come in with equally unique and surprising data.
Read MoreHidden Wood Duck
This pond had a bunch of Mallards, American Black Ducks, and some hybrids…and hidden in the back were a couple of Wood Ducks, a treat for a December day when this water could very well have been frozen over in many other years. I hope you will be able to put on your t-shirt and shorts and get outside to enjoy this unfathomable stretch of holiday heat this weekend. See what you can find and keep an open mind – in the past week I have seen uncommon lingering birds like these, a dragonfly (Autumn Meadowhawk) and a butterfly (Orange Sulphur). It’s unbelievable! Scott Kruitbosch...
Read MoreUnfrozen Waters
Staring through the trees and seeing an unfrozen pond is a very common sight right now in the end of autumn when, at the most, we have a slight bit of ice or a little frost here and there. While everything “feels” like winter with a low sun, brown, decaying vegetation, and the cold “look” to the environment, our days are warming to historic levels. Whether it’s the weather or the climate – and in this case it’s both – nature has a strange feel to it at the moment thanks to El Niño.
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