Some Outdoor Goings-on

Top Photo: Two adult red-tailed hawks silhouetted against the clouds as they soar above Butterfly House. Note that each bird is molting. The two red-tailed hawks above successfully nested on the museum grounds. They’re regular nesters. I rarely see eastern cottontails on our 84 acre campus, until this year. I’ve seen more this spring and summer than I have in perhaps the last 14 years of hiking the museum’s trails. Predator numbers must be down. Besides the red-tailed hawks above,Read more

Three Birds to Watch For

Don’t fret. If you visited the museum to get a look at our wintering female common goldeneye to add to your NC, year, month, or whatever other birding list you may be working on, and you missed her, she’s still around. Yes, there are days when she takes off for other fishing holes, but so far, she’s always come back. Though, she’s not always glued to the mergansers as in many of my photos of her would suggest. She frequentlyRead more

The Fall

Though we are past peak fall colors, there’s still great photos to be had throughout our 84 acre campus. And, there are birds migrating through as well as resident birds to be seen and photographed.               And, for a couple of birds, one that you might see, another that you’ll probably see.         Till next time…Read more

Photo Ops

There are many opportunities to capture interesting photogrpaphic images while on a walk around Explore the Wild and Catch the Wind. Timing and luck play their parts, and of course the amount of time one spends on the outdoor loop here at the Museum helps expose one to more opportunities, but one thing is for sure, you have to be there in person to photographic whatever it is that’s happening. Here’s some of the images I captured last week. TheRead more

Out You Go!

It didn’t take long for our Great Blue Heron (GBH) to roust out our visiting Great Egret. The heron had been absent for most of the day. Upon returning in the evening he circled the Wetlands once, spotted the intruder and made a direct assault on the unsuspecting egret. The GBH came in and landed within six feet of the egret, who, thinking everything was on the up-and-up, kept right on fishing the way it had been before the GBH droppedRead more

Great Blue, the Moon, Seeds Ready to Fly, a new Ode, and a Returnee

Hidden most of the day, our Great Blue Heron can often be seen on the far side of the Wetlands waiting for us humans to leave for the day. The skies were clear most of last week providing the opportunity to see the waxing gibbous moon each morning. Groundsel Tree is nearly ready to cast its seeds to the wind. Last week I spotted a new species of dragonfly here at the Museum, a Blue-faced Meadowhawk. I see Autumn MeadowhawksRead more

Last Week

The photos shown here are from last week, before Sandy rolled by bringing with her damp easterly, northeasterly, northerly, northwesterly and now still wet and nasty westerly winds. It will again be sunny and relatively warm, but until then have a look at a handful of pre-Sandy photos (just be glad you don’t live in New Jersey, or West Virginia, or….). And finally… What will turn up this week?  Read more