What’s all the fuss about?

Ah, nature…peaceful, quiet, serene, all creatures living together in perfect harmony. Not hardly! When I arrived at the Wetlands on Wednesday morning (10/30) I heard the unmistakable rattle of kingfishers. There were two female kingfishers in the Wetlands. As I watched, one of the birds flew over to a birch snag next to the Wetlands Main Overlook and rattled away. Seconds later another kingfisher flew directly at the first kingfisher forcing it off its perch. Except for the breeding seasonRead more

Odes, Leps, Herps, and some Aves

Green Darners have been ovipositing in the Wetlands (3/13). Up until this Tuesday I had only seen males patrolling the area. I was finally able to confirm the emergence of Fragile Forktails (Ischnura posita). I photographed a damselfly a week ago (3/7) but wasn’t sure of its identity, although I was fairly confident that it was a forktail. I’ve seen these forktails here at the Museum as early as mid February. It’s curious that I haven’t seen one earlier thisRead more
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The Ice Cometh and the Ice Goeth

The first few days of the year brought with them the first ice over of the Wetlands. The ice will soon be history, all gone. I, or we, know that the ice will be gone within a day or two since the TV, internet, and radio tells us these things ahead of time. But for some of the creatures that live in and depend on the Wetlands for food, ice is not a good thing and it can’t be predictedRead more
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BEKIs Make Big Splash in Wetlands!

The picture on the right is of the splash made by an adult male Belted Kingfisher as it dove into the water. The kingfisher was demonstrating to its young fledglings how to catch fish. I saw at least three kingfishers in the Wetlands on Wednesday (5/18). The next day it was reported that there were five of them there. Two of those were adults, the rest were the young of the year. The appearance of the kingfishers with their youngRead more

BEKI Male Comes Home

The male half of the locally nesting Belted Kingfisher pair has returned to the Wetlands from wherever it was that he spent the last six or seven months. I think he’s back a bit early this year. I don’t remember seeing him until sometime in March in the past. I’ve already seen the male chasing about the Wetlands with a fish dangling from his bill trying to impress, or entice, our female. Love is in the air!Read more

A Bird Walk Thru the Week

On this bright, sunny, and relatively warm day following many days of below normal temperatures, I thought it’d be nice to take a walk through the past week or so and have a look at some of the birds that frequent Explore the Wild and Catch the Wind. Take a walk. It’s good for you.Read more

Some Early September Sights

As you well know (if you’ve been following this blog) caterpillars tend to show up more frequently from late summer into fall. It’s not so much that there are more of them, but that the larger species are maturing, their frass more visible on the ground beneath the trees and shrubs that they’re feeding on, and many of them are hustling across the paths on their way to finding a safe place to pupate over the coming winter. Here’s a fewRead more

Kingfisher Returns, With Some New Faces!

There were five Belted Kingfishers in the Wetlands on Wednesday afternoon (5/26). What does that mean? It means that our resident female, which is seen in the Wetlands nearly every day of the year until nesting duties call her away in April, has returned with her new family. I wasn’t able to get a close enough look to see if there were three young and both adults present or four young and just one of the parents. There was muchRead more