First Half of May and How to Tell Murray Bear from Little Bear

Top Photo: Canada geese defend goslings. Note aquatic turtles and spotted sandpiper on float behind geese. The second week of May was warm with little humidity. It was a pleasant time to be outside. Here’s a handful of sights that were witnessed during that period. The six goslings which have been following their parents around the wetlands for the past week (first seen on May 2) still number six. Butterflies are becoming easier to find as spring rolls along. ARead more

Nest Box Update 5.6.25

Top Photo: Eastern bluebird eggs. We have added seven new individuals to the local avifauna, four eastern bluebirds and three Carolina chickadees. All six of our nest boxes are without nestlings. Though, two have nest material from two different species and are slowly under construction. ——————————— At the Cow Pasture, a house wren has added to it’s meager nest in the past week. It doesn’t seem urgent. There were two twigs noted on last week’s inspection, a handful more thisRead more

Nest Box Update 4.30.25

Top Photo: Eastern bluebird eggs. There have been strange goings-on along our little bluebird trail here at the museum. Two nest boxes which had had healthy chickadee nestlings have been discovered to now have dead or missing nestlings or eggs from the nests. One nest box is still unchanged and has bluebird nest material within. One previously empty nest box has what appears to be a clue in the fatalities and disappearances of our chickadee nestlings, two twigs. —————————— TheRead more

Mimi and Her Spring Shower (and other bear stuff)

Top Photo: Mimi relaxing. It’s spring, The air temps are rising and all of our bears are out enjoying the changing season. Mimi can sometimes be found in the plunge pool of the black bear enclosure. She genuinely seems to enjoy just sitting there. It’s an exclusive springtime thing, she’ll swim and wade later in the summer, immersing herself in the two deeper pools of water at her disposal below the falls. All the bears, our 21 year old femaleRead more

Nest Box Update 4.22.25

Top Photo: Eastern bluebird eggs. We still, as we did last week, have four active nests. However, we now have nestlings instead of eggs in all four of those nests. ——————————— As has been the case all season, the nest box at Cow Pasture hasn’t been touched. It’s empty. Last week there were five chickadee eggs in the nest box at Explore the Wild. Though there may be one egg still left under the nestlings pictured here, it will probablyRead more

Lucky Squirrels

Top Photo: Eastern gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) with apple. Eastern gray squirrels are known for their industrious foraging behavior. Besides their nonstop foraging for natural food items like elm seeds, pine nuts, walnuts, mulberries and other naturals, depending on the season, they’re constantly in and out our many trash receptacles here at the museum. The natural… They pull everything out of our trash receptacles from crackers to candy, and even sometimes healthy food like apples. It seems like a goodRead more

Nest Box Update 4.15.25

To Photo: Eastern bluebird eggs. We have, as we did last week, four nests with eggs. All the eggs were being incubated, that is, there was an adult bird in the nest sitting on the eggs when the inspection door was opened. Egg counts in the nests were the same as last week indicating the females are done laying. ——————————— The Cow pasture nest box is empty. The Explore the Wild nest has 5 chickadee eggs which were being incubatedRead more
1 Comment

Blue Corporal and Other Odes*

Top Photo: Male blue corporal. As mentioned previously on this blog (April) blue corporals are early season dragonflies. They’ve usually come and gone by the time the “big” six species of dragonflies begin to make themselves seen. That is, the six species of skimmers (Libellulidae) that you might find at just about any body of water in the state, certainly any pond or lake throughout the warm spring, summer, and fall seasons. Those six species are: Blue dasher Great blueRead more