Top Photo: Mimi bear (right) and Gus bear. After grazing on some winter grass, Mimi bear seemed to be headed for the culvert pipe attraction in her enclosure to slip inside for a nap. Gus bear was already engaged. With a sidelong glance at the slumbering male bear, Mimi slinked off to greener pastures. Recently, Ranger Brooke found a small piece of pine branch with a growth attached. She asked me what I thought it was. I reasoned it aRead more
Posts filed in: Birds
Hawks Identified
The answers to the hawk identifications from last week’s post “A Four Hawk Week” are as follows. Top Photo: Cooper’s hawk. The rest of the hawks are: Hawk 1 – Sharp-shinned hawk (immature) What you can see is the rounded wings, longish squared-off tail and small head. What you can’t see is the rapid flap, flap, flap and glide as the bird flies along. Quick movements usually means small bird. This is a small hawk. Some of the smallest malesRead more
A Four Hawk Week
Top Photo: A hawk passes over. This past week I saw four hawk species pass overhead here at the museum. In case you would like to have a try at identifying the hawks yourself, I’ll wait several days before filling in the captions with the correct species names. The hawks pictured are not to scale.Read more
Look Twice
Top Photo: Yellow-rumped warbler in black willow. With many species, you don’t have to see much of a bird to identify it. The yellow-rumped warbler in the photo above is but one of several species of warbler with a patch of yellow feathers in the same location as this bird; magnolia, palm, and Cape May warblers are three others. The yellow-rumped is the only one you’re likely to see here in central North Carolina at this time of year. CapeRead more
Annual Creeper, Brooke, and Feeders
Top Photo: Annual out-of-focus brown creeper photo. Each winter here at the museum I get the opportunity to photograph at least one brown creeper. I don’t see them that often, once, twice, maybe three times per winter season. They’re listed as “fairly common” here on the piedmont but they are, however, small, inconspicuous, and easily overlooked. As the name implies, they’re largely brown in color with white and black markings and nearly all white undersides. They creep up the sidesRead more
Ilex
Top Photo: The red fruit and evergreen leaves of Ilex. Ilex is a genus of largely evergreen flowering plants which are very familiar to most people. Some Ilex have spiked leaves but, surprisingly, most varieties do not. After spring and summer pollination of their tiny white flowers, the plants produce red berries, more correctly called drupes, which persist throughout the fall and winter. The plants in the genus Ilex are more commonly known as hollies. The native holly, American hollyRead more
Feeder Wishes
Top Photo: Pine siskins at an older feeder here at museum, February 2013. I’ve been waiting patiently for winter birds to show up at the feeders here at the museum. Oh, I’ve seen red-breasted nuthatches, white-throated sparrows, dark-eyed juncos, (it’s always good to see them each year) and of course, all the local characters, like chickadees, titmice, white-breasted and brown-headed nuthatches, and so on. What I’m waiting to see is pine siskins and evening grosbeaks. Those two birds are irregularRead more
A Hooded Surprise
Top Photo: A whir of wings and slap, slap, slap of webbed feet on the water as the birds take off. If you’re the first person of the day to descend the boardwalk leading to Explore the Wild you may see the mergansers in close to or under the boardwalk rousting out any mosquitofish, aquatic insects or crayfish that may be hanging out in the shadows. The birds are shy. If the birds see you coming they may simply swimRead more
Mantid, Frog and an Odd Fruit in Mid-November
Top Photo: Butterfly House volunteer and insect lover Daniel holds mantid which, itself, had just captured a cabbage white butterfly. It’s mid-November and insects are still active. In fact, Butterfly House Volunteer Daniel was out exploring the Butterfly House Outdoor Garden here at the museum when he came across three on-the-prowl mantids. One of them had just captured a cabbage white butterfly (above photo). Volunteer Sam reveled in letting one of the mantids crawl up her arm. I’ve seen bullfrogsRead more