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Posts Tagged "woodlands"

Invasive Species Management Webinar

Posted on Feb 24, 2016

Invasive Species Management Webinar

Today, Wednesday February 24 at 6pm we will be showing the Invasive Species Management: Picking battles large enough to matter and small enough to win webinar by Norris Muth of Juniata College. Norris will be calling in for the discussion portion of the webinar to answer questions from the audience. Webinar description: It is a safe bet that every parcel of privately owned forest land in Pennsylvania has multiple invasive species. With these invasive species posing more problems than can possibly all be solved at once, how can landowners decide when and how to act? We will discuss some ways...

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Superb Sky

Posted on Dec 20, 2015

Superb Sky

There was a superb sky around the moon after sunset one night last week, though only for a few minutes. It was a case of the atmosphere looking better through the camera lens and polarizer with the latter enabling the former to see what we could not with our eyes. I thought the view looked otherworldly to say the least. I guarantee that I was on Earth, but it felt like another planet. It helps to remind us how much is truly going on around us in nature and the atmosphere, all of it impacting the life of thousands upon thousands of species that we must work to keep protecting…including...

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Cooper’s Hawk

Posted on Oct 13, 2015

Cooper’s Hawk

I have been posting many photos of migrant songbirds lately, and here is one of their predators – the Cooper’s Hawk (Accipiter cooperii). This raptor of the forest is an extremely agile and talented flier, able to navigate through thick woodlands in pursuit of prey. You may recognize them from your yard as they are frequent bird feeder guests, targeting hungry passerines. They seem to be less adept at capturing prey in open areas like this one, unable to fully utilize their maneuverability and relative speed as they do in more dense habitat to surprise and outwit songbirds. This...

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Harvester Butterfly

Posted on Jul 21, 2015

Harvester Butterfly

Here is a shot of the Harvester (Feniseca tarquinius) butterfly in its natural habitat, the world around it is as green as can be. Get out in that hot air today and dig up some treasures for yourself! Photographed by RTPI Affiliate Sean Graesser in Connecticut while on assignment for the Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History.

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Harvester (Feniseca tarquinius)

Posted on Jul 10, 2015

Harvester (Feniseca tarquinius)

It might not look like an unusual butterfly, but the Harvester (Feniseca tarquinius) is North America’s only carnivorous butterfly. That’s right, flying around in our very own woodlands is a carnivorous butterfly! Its larval stage feeds on aphids usually found on Alder trees instead of a host plant. The adults will eat the honey dew excreted by aphids or tree-hoppers. These butterflies can be very difficult to find, usually only discovered while resting on the ends of leaves during territorial and mating disputes. Photographed by RTPI Affiliate Sean Graesser for the Meet Your...

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