Top Photo: Hooded mergansers float and reflect in the wetland’s water. Here’s a handful of things to look for as you stroll around and through our outdoor areas during the last half of winter. We hope to entice hooded mergansers to nest in our wetlands. Cornelian cherry dogwood’s flower buds are about to burst open into a bright yellow display of florescence. The small tree shown here is located on your right, just outside the main building’s door to GatewayRead more
Posts filed in: Birds
A Hawk Tale
Top Photo: Unidentified large brown bird. You’re walking along the path. The low mid-morning sun is bright and shining directly into your face. A large bird flies by and catches your eye. It lands high up in a tree some fifty or so yards away. Branches restrict your view and the bird is facing away from you. When you first spotted the bird you thought it was a hawk. But which hawk? red-shouldered (the most common hawk in the area)?Read more
Bird Viewing
Top Photo: Red-bellied woodpecker peeks out from behind suet. If you happen to be passing Bird Viewing while on your way to or from Catch the Wind on the Museum’s outdoor loop trail, stop and sit down for a few minutes. Grab one of the very comfortable Adirondack chairs (you won’t want to get up again) and set a while. You’re very likely to see Carolina chickadee, northern cardinal, tufted titmouse, white-breasted nuthatch, Carolina wren, downy and red-bellied woodpeckers, mourningRead more
Four Birds and Who They Are
Top Photo: December 2022, what bird is this? The photo above depicts a hermit thrush. The clues are there. You should be able to tell from the shape of the bill that the bird is a thrush, at the very least, not a sparrow. Though you’re viewing the bird from behind and below, and mostly see the belly and undertail coverts, you can also see, at minimum, half of the tail. Along the outer edges of the tail you canRead more
Moon (just a phase its going through)
Top Photo: Nearly full waxing gibbous moon with “V” of double-crested cormorants passing over various lunar mares.* You can’t see it now, it’s heavily overcast and raining, but as I write this, the moon is nearly full, waxing gibbous. On December 7 it will be full and thereafter begins the waning side of its phases until the new moon on the 23rd of the month. Here’s a handful of shots of various phases. Enjoy! *Both cormorants and eagle were photoshoppedRead more
The Hermit at the Wolves
Top Photo: Looking down at wintering thrush. Of all the spot-breasted, brown-backed thrushes in North America, the hermit thrush is the one that winters furthest north. If you see a spot-breasted thrush at the museum in winter it most surely is a hermit thrush. Hermit thrushes can switch their diet from insects and small invertebrates to berries in winter, which allows them to spend their winters further north than their relatives. The other thrushes spend their winters in Central andRead more
Mid-November
Top Photo: Two of six hooded mergansers circle wetlands. As in every year since I’ve been working at the museum, hooded mergansers have arrived in our wetlands by mid November. This year, six were spotted on the early date of November 9, though only two of them actually dropped in. Four birds were seen making a pass at the museum’s wetlands but continued on elsewhere. Since that day, they’ve been seen on the 12th and again on the 15th whenRead more
Yellowjacket, Green Anole, Winter Wren, and Marbled Spider
Top Photo: A worker yellowjacket enters the tunnel to its subterranean hive. Yellowjackets nest underground, though they may construct a hive in a hollowed out log, under the siding of your house, or in other seemingly vacant and unattended cavities. The ground, however, is the most frequent site chosen by a queen in spring. A single queen constructs the below-ground hive and tends to the initial eggs, larvae and pupae. Once workers emerge from pupation they take over all dutiesRead more
The Warblers and The Aphids
Top Photo: Northern Parula on river birch. The other day while down in Explore the Wild on a cool October morning there was an active group of migrant songbirds working the trees along the shoreline. The group was composed of mostly yellow-rumped warblers, a few northern parulas and some kinglets. While the yellow-rumped warblers (butter-butts) were attracted to the wax myrtle fruit, which is in abundance this year, a river birch tree held the attention of the other birds inRead more