WildLife Guards in Action
Have you visited Bridgeport, Connecticut’s Pleasure Beach? If you are a birder, butterfly lover, or all-around naturalist, we encourage you to stop by soon via the water taxi! Getting to Pleasure Beach is easy with free parking at the water taxi pier lot, 91 Seaview Avenue, Bridgeport. The water taxi will bring visitors to and from Pleasure Beach, and is also free. While there you can enjoy our WildLife Guards program, which trains, mentors, and employs ten local high schools students and two crew leaders to monitor nesting birds and engage visitors, families, and friends about...
Read MoreGroundhog Day?
Groundhog Day? Not quite! The grass is a little too green for that…but this woodchuck was on guard while having an evening meal and keeping a watchful eye over the yard. It seems to be casting a little bit of a shadow, even without all those TV lights surrounding it. Does that mean we will have six more weeks of summer?
Read MorePurple Martins
Purple Martins (Progne subis) are a unique species even among other unique birds! These sizable aerial insectivores nest only within human-manufactured cavities including gourds, apartments and other types of boxes essentially everywhere to the east of the Rocky Mountains. This is due to Native Americans hosting them in gourds for thousands of years, slowly shifting their breeding behavior to using artificial structures as it was such a successful and mutually beneficial relationship. Without our help it is likely they would be entirely eliminated in this part of their range. Marketing is a...
Read MoreBaby Spiders
I am sorry in advance to those who do not enjoy spiders, but I had to snap a shot of this! Now THAT is a lot of mouths to feed…at least try to remember that all of these spiders will be eating the bugs that actually do bite us. Scott Kruitbosch Conservation & Outreach Coordinator
Read MoreMock vs. Chuck
This Northern Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos) was not taking too kindly to this young Woodchuck, Groundhog, or any other common name you’d like (Marmota monax) as it was only trying to nibble on a few delicious green snacks on a cloudy morning. You can see their relative sizes are not that far off, with this young chuck wondering why mom and dad did not explain the joy of birds before. Mockingbirds can be vicious pests if you are anywhere near they’re nest doing…well, anything, like existing in their space! I can recall being attacked and whacked by them as a small child...
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