It has been hot, very hot! So why is this great blue heron (GBH) sunning? At the time the photos here were taken (about 4:40 PM) the sun was still fairly high in the sky. The temperature was in the 90s. The rock the heron was standing on had been in the sun approximately 7 hours (had to be very warm!), and the sun was bouncing off the water’s surface like it was a giant suntan reflector. The heron was panting,Read more
Posts filed in: Summer
Great-crested
I first noticed the bird in the photo as it stood on the ground chasing insects in front of the Bungee Jump (Take Off). It is, as it says in the photo’s caption, a great-crested flycatcher (Myiarchus crinitus). After the bird presumably caught and consumed the insect, or insects, it was chasing it flew up to one of the tell-tale poles that are everywhere in Catch the Wind and proceeded to preen, allowing many opportunities for photography. Here’s just a handfulRead more
Laying Eggs
Alerted to its presence by Dale (Facilities), I took a detour in my weekly bluebird nest box inspection Tuesday and hightailed it up to the summer camp outdoor classrooms to see if the yellow-bellied slider he reported was still there. Dale said that she was in the middle of laying eggs and I wanted to first, see who she was (I mark the nesting turtles here at the Museum), and then confirm she was indeed laying eggs. When I arrived, theRead more
Bluebird Update 7.7.15
There is currently one active bluebird nest here at the Museum. The nest at the Amphimeadow which held three nestlings last week is now empty, it’s occupants having fledged some time during the past week. The only remaining active nest is in the nest box at the Butterfly House. It contains three nestlings. They are likely to fledge by the next nest box inspection. It’s difficult to say whether the other nest boxes will host other bluebird nests, butRead more
The March of the Soldier Flies
The water level in the Wetlands was low. The shoreline reached out a dozen feet or more from where it had been most of the spring, creating mud flats where there was once water. As I walked past the viewing area on the north side of the Wetlands, I noticed the mud sparkling in the sunlight. The mud appeared to be alive. There was something, many things, moving on the surface making the mud itself seem to crawl. I took severalRead more
Black Duck
Three American black ducks showed up in the Wetlands on the Fourth of July. I’d not previously recorded black ducks here at the Museum, so it’s noteworthy that the ducks appeared today. They all appear to be males. Wood duck, mallard, blue-winged teal, hooded merganser, redhead and bufflehead are the members of the duck family on my list of duck visitors. Black ducks become number 7 on the list. Happy Fourth!Read more
Painted Turtle Nest
Top Photo: eastern painted turtle. Thanks to the vigilance of Animal Keeper Sarah, with an assist from Keeper Kent, we now have a turtle’s nest to monitor. On June 21, Keeper Sarah spotted an eastern painted turtle laying eggs next to the gravel driveway that leads to the Red Wolf Enclosure. I placed a cage over the nest site to keep predators, such as raccoons, from digging up and eating the eggs. There are numerous sites throughout ourRead more
The Paper Chase
What is the insect in the photo up to? First, let’s establish what the insect is. You may have guessed by its shape that it’s a wasp. You’d be correct. It’s a bald-faced hornet, named for the white (bald) face. Bald-faced hornets have a reputation, good or bad, for vigorously protecting their hives from intruders. They will activity pursue, en masse, perceived destroyers of their hives. Like the familiar yellowjackets, which is what these wasps actually are, a type of yellowjacket, they will chaseRead more
Bluebird Update 6.30.15
It’s the end of June. We have two active bluebird nests with three nestlings each. The bluebird nest in the Amphimeadow nest box has three nestlings. They are at least ten days old, appearing to have hatched just prior to last week’s inspection of their nest box (6/23/15). Like the Amphimeadow nest, the Butterfly House nest contains three nestlings. One of its eggs did not hatch. The nest’s inhabitants appear to be six days old. They’re certainly no more than that since theyRead more