While walking through the Dinosaur Trail this past Tuesday (10/11), I noticed several dark spots on a leaf of one of our banana trees. On closer inspection I could see that what I was looking at were the shadows of three creatures which were on the opposite side of the leaf. The sun shining through the leaf created silhouettes of two tree frogs and an insect. Turning the leaf over confirmed two green tree frogs and a stink bug.

The winds over the past several days, following the passage of Hurricane Matthew, have been conducive to bird migration. Some of our resident species have departed and I’ve noticed some new arrivals from the north. Yellow-bellied sapsuckers are on site, as well as ruby-crowned kinglets, and yellow-rumped warblers, a.k.a. butternuts, among others. Keep and eye out, sparrows should be arriving any day.

At closing on Tuesday, a murder of crows began harassing a barred owl in the Wetlands. The owl was perched in a willow tree on the far side of the Wetlands. The crows’ smaller cousins, blue jays, soon joined in. The owl looked quite disturbed by the harassment. To the relief of the owl, the raucous crows and jays moved on after about ten minutes and all was quite and peaceful again.

Crows, jays, and other birds seem to enjoy hassling hawks and owls. I get the impression that to find an owl out and about during the day is a special event for those birds.