Visitors

There’s a Great Egret dead center in the above photo. Great Egrets are infrequent visitors here at the Museum. I believe the last one that I saw here was in 2012 during the August heat. Most sightings are during the winter, however. The winter of 2011/2012 was busy with herons and egrets. A Great Egret and an “outsider” Great Blue Heron worried our local Great Blue to a frazzle for most of that winter until they nearly exhausted the supplyRead more
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What’s up in the Wild

Here’s a little of what’s going on in the Wild at the Museum…a caterpillar. A damselfly. An assassin bug. A nest-building bird. A morphing frog. A tree frog who thinks it can’t be seen. And, a bird with a frog. And that’s some of what I’ve been seeing. How about you?Read more

The Rana Dilemma

Back in 2009, I noticed a large concentration of bullfrog tadpoles in the northwest corner of the Wetlands. The tadpoles were congregated around a pipe which drains the higher ground above, particularly the Red Wolf Enclosure. I didn’t know why the tadpoles were gathered in this location but speculated that it was due to either the concentrations of dissolved oxygen in the water, higher temperature, algal growth (their main source of food), or a combination of those things. Something hadRead more

More goings on

If you’ve been walking through Explore the Wild over the past several weeks you may have seen what looks like snow blowing along on the breeze. Of course, it’s been too warm to snow, so what is that white fluffy stuff floating through the air down by the Wetlands? It’s seed dispersal in action. Groundsel Tree has been spreading its seeds across the landscape via the wind. Like willow in the spring, milkweed in the late summer, and of courseRead more
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Green Heron

There is a Green Heron in our Wetlands today (11/20/12). A Green Heron in our Wetlands at this time of year is unusual, in fact, it’s rare. Chances are, it won’t stick around for the winter, so come on out to see it now.Read more
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Look Who’s in Town!

I haven’t seen a Pied-billed Grebe in the Wetlands here at the Museum since the fall of 2009, three years ago. I first noticed the current grebe on September 19, one week earlier than the first time I spied the 2009 grebe. That bird stayed with us into December of that year. Hope this one stays a while too! We usually lose our Green Herons to the migratory urge in late September, so we may not be seeing this one for muchRead more

Watching TVs

Several weeks ago as I walked down the boardwalk into Explore the Wild I noticed a Turkey Vulture (TV) soaring low over the trees at the NE corner of the Wetlands. I thought, “There must be something dead over there.” A few days later I saw a TV clumsily fly down through the trees in that same area. “There’s GOT to be something dead over there.” I thought. And then, a few days after that, I heard two crows callingRead more