First, let’s talk about the name. The common, and proper, name for the big brown goose with the long black neck and white chin is Canada Goose. A Canada Goose may indeed be Canadian, but they may also be American, it all depends upon which side of the US/Canada border it was hatched. The geese we have in our Wetlands are most assuredly American in origin, they were certainly hatched here in North Carolina. Their species name is Canada GooseRead more
Posts filed in: Spring
Of Red Wolves
The photo above was taken on Friday, February 17, 2012 at 11:00 AM. The photo below was taken on Friday, February 15, 2013 at 10:54 AM. If you don’t know what’s going on in the photos, the wolves are mating, or rather, have already mated and waiting for the swelling to go down before they separate, which is normal. The timing of this mating is interesting and may give us a clue as to when to look for this behavior inRead more
Catbird Defends Nest
The urgent, squeaky cries of a catbird in the willows off to my right could be one of two things, a dispute between two rival male catbirds or a nearby predator (more likely). Since there were a couple of cardinals and at least one towhee involved with the squawking and carrying on, it could only be one of those things, a predator was nearby. The intruder was either in the trees or just below the birds and the birds were mobbingRead more
Two Swallows
Over the past few weeks we’ve had two bird species show up that I was happy to see, both swallows. The first, a family of Northern Rough-winged Swallows spent a little over a week practicing the art of catching flying insects over our Wetlands. There were 6 – 7 birds in the group, two adults and five or six juveniles. I’ve seen family groups here in previous summers, but typically only one or two juvenile birds. It was nice toRead more
A Little Break from the Turtles and Bluebirds
Although Passion Vine (Passsiflora incarnata), or Maypops, grows readily in our area it is not always as obvious as you might think having such a showy flower. It doesn’t seem to climb as well as Trumpet Vine or Coral Honeysuckle and is often found sprawling on the ground or across and through other vegataion, hiding it from view. Maypops plays host to several tropical species of butterfly which, unfortunately for us here in North Carolina, occur mainly in Florida. TheRead more
Turtle Report
I’ve gotten several reports over the last two weeks of turtles laying eggs at various locations around the Museum’s outdoor areas, places like the Train Station and the Red Wolf Overlook. The turtles were, according to descriptions given me, Yellow-bellied Sliders and at least one Eastern Musk Turtle. Unfortunately, I wasn’t on site at the time and the turtles went unmarked or, if they had marks on them, they were not recorded as such. Yesterday (6/13) around 9 AM, aRead more
Bluebird Update June 14, 2012
The occupants of the nest box at the Train Tunnel are progressing as they should, no problems with water and the birds sat tight when I opened the box to have a look at them. All three nest boxes in Catch the Wind are empty. I don’t think that they will be occupied again this season, but we’ll have to wait and see to be sure. Many thanks to Landscape Tech, Jose for cutting nice clear paths for me atRead more
Life and Death in the Wetlands
I first saw the snake in the photo as it was swimming in the shade of the willows at the edge of the Wetlands. It slowly crawled out of the water and onto one of the trees. Up it went until it found a limb to its liking and proceeded to follow it out to its end. I assume it was looking for bird nests in the willows, there’s much catbird activity in the area. Apparently finding no nest inRead more