It seems the lengthening days and warm weather of last week created a stirring in some of the local wildlife. As I drove in to work Friday I saw two Black Vultures copulating on the side of the road. On Wednesday (4/19) I saw one of our local Red-shouldered Hawks aloft, stooping, soaring, and screaming for all the world to see and hear his desire to procreate. I later saw the bird land next to another red-shoulder and mount the otherRead more
Posts filed in: Herps
Redheads
In the six plus years that I’ve been here at the Museum I’ve never seen a Redhead in the Wetlands. There were four redheads swimming, diving, preening, and resting in our little quarry of a wetland on Wednesday morning (2/19/14). Redheads are diving ducks. They feed by diving under the water to retrieve submergent plants, mollusks, aquatic insects, and even small fish. Redheads spend the summer on the northern prairies and intermountain regions of the North American West where theyRead more
The Week Ahead
You can expect to see more scenes as depicted in the above photo for the duration of the week, the temperatures are expected to be in the 60s with at least one 70 thrown in. I saw six turtles out basking this morning. I expect to see more this afternoon. In fact, I expect to see many more later today. The turtles are waking up and I’m anticipating that every available perch, every rock, boulder, log, and bit of shoreline outRead more
A Field Guide to Whatever it is You’re Looking at
There seems to be a guide to just about anything and everything. Whatever it is you happen to be looking at someone has put together a guide to help you figure out what it is, and often, how it relates to the world. There are field guides to birds, mammals, insects, reptiles and amphibians, plants and trees. Bird guides are further broken down into eastern birds, western birds, and even groups of birds: sparrows, shorebirds, raptors, warblers, owls. There areRead more
Chasing Turtles
I’ve been watching turtles here at the Museum since my arrival some 6 years ago. We have about five species in our Wetlands: Yellow-bellied Slider, Red-eared Slider, Eastern Painted, Eastern Musk, and Common Snapping Turtles. You might be thinking, “Hey, what’s he talking about, you either have five species or you don’t,” and you’d be right. The reason I say about five species is because the red-eared is not native. I haven’t seen any adults that I can definitely call red-eared,Read more
First Day of Winter
According to the calendar, today is the first day of winter. Here’s a few creatures that showed up on this unusually warm winter day. Have a pleasant Winter Solstice.Read more
Warm and Wet
The past few days have been rather warm and humid, if not rainy. That will all change soon, there’s colder air moving our way. But until that cold front rolls over us, enjoy the warmth as some of our wildlife has been. I don’t think the warmer weather matters very much to the mergansers, as long as the water doesn’t freeze and they can get at the fish and tadpoles beneath the surface, they’re happy. The mergansers above seem toRead more
Out and About
Among other creatures out and about this past week were a late season dragonfly, basking turtles, basking bullfrogs, and basking mergansers. And finally… There’s much going on out in the Wild, come on out and see what you can find. Read more