Northern Mockingbird
This is one small bird with a frightening gaze! Watch out for the Northern Mockingbirds (Mimus polyglottos), folks…even when they are not defending a nest and zooming at your head they certainly give off a scary vibe. I would not turn my back to this one. As long as it has some tasty food like those berries and some unfrozen water it will be content to stick out the winter in a given location. I don’t care what I’m imagining, that is not a happy expression…but I am happy they are such a successful species advancing northward in their territory. Scott Kruitbosch...
Read MoreAmerican Bittern
This is the American Bittern (Botaurus lentiginosus), a stupendously cryptic and sensationally camouflaged heron species of freshwater and brackish marshes and wetlands. During late fall and winter they can be infrequently found moving south to warmer or coastal areas where the water does not freeze. Even their movements are meant to blend in perfectly to surrounding vegetation, stalking prey including fish, amphibians, insects, mammals, reptiles, and more. The American Bittern was once a terror in the night to many early American settlers who lived in coastal regions. Its pumping, gurgling,...
Read MoreProject Wild America Youth Ambassadors: Chadakoin River
During 2015, the Roger Tory Peterson Institute launched its Project Wild America Youth Ambassadors program employing six high school students and two college aged students. Throughout the course of the summer months, the PWA students worked alongside RTPI conservation staff to evaluate the Chadakoin River Corridor in the City of Jamestown. This urban river was found to be recovering from its long history of factory pollutants, channelization and overuse. It hosts a variety of flora and fauna including some that are quite rare within the state of New York. Species such as the Spiny Softshell...
Read MoreGull Feeding Frenzy
There have been enormous numbers of gulls feeding in Long Island Sound over the past few months with sizable numbers of bait fish and schools of other species to prey on. This is before today’s mega and historic weather-based Franklin’s Gull invasion of the Northeast! More on that later…but going back to this summer and early fall, the busy food web has even attracted several whales into the waters. Laughing Gulls, absent for much of the summer, have been seen in great abundance since late summer. Their activity, along with that of Ring-billed and Herring Gulls, brought in...
Read MoreBlack-bellied Plover
Though this Black-bellied Plover (Pluvialis squatarola) is not quite living up to its name during the non-breeding season it still has a surprisingly appealing look. The plumage may initially seem dull but when it takes flight it flashes some of that namesake color with its black axillars and an always white rump and tail. The species can be found hanging out on the Atlantic Coast in many locations during the late autumn and winter. It is a bird we record nearly year-round for our work in the Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds.
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