Top Photo: Eastern bluebird eggs. First, thanks to Ranger Kade and Volunteer Sammie for conducting the nest box inspections this week in my absence (everybody deserves a little time off). They did an excellent job checking, photographing and reporting on the nest box activity during the past week. Here’s what they saw. Three nest boxes are empty. One nest box has two eggs in it, but should be labeled empty (will be, hereafter). One nest box has bluebird eggs whileRead more
Posts tagged: #SSP
Common Snapping Turtle Tumble
Top Photo: Common snapping turtles during spring mating. A disturbance just below the water’s surface caught my attention. Something was breaking the water’s surface about 100 feet or more out in the open water of the wetlands. Then it was gone. Was it a duck? No, all our winter resident diving ducks had already departed for the north, or wherever else they feel a need to be at this time of year. Was it an otter? Otters can stay belowRead more
Nest Box Update 4.23.24
Top Photo: Eastern bluebird eggs. We have one empty nest box, one with a nest sans eggs (chickadees), two with 1 egg each (chickadee and bluebird) and a total of eleven nestlings (4 chickadees and 7 bluebirds. — After having been raided by a house wren and emptied of its five eggs, the bluebird pair has apparently rallied and started a new nest. The Cow Pasture nest box has come back to life and so far holds one bluebird egg.Read more
More Spring Sightings and a Red Wolf Observation
Top Photo: Male common whitetail. Common whitetails are everywhere. Ponds, lakes, even slow moving rivers and streams are home to this ubiquitous skimmer. The standout white/blue abdomen and dark marks on the wings lend to the easy recognizability of the male. The female too, is easily recognized by the three dark markings on each of her four wings. They both tend to perch low to, or directly on, the ground. Another early season dragonfly making an appearance is the blueRead more
Awakenings
Top Photo: Adeyha and Oak (front) sticking close. It’s February and the season for procreation begins. Red wolf Oak is in estrus, Canada geese have arrived, hawks are soaring above screaming out their intentions, and songbirds are ramping up their melodious twitterings. Oak and Adeyha have been much more attached to one another over the past week, estrus has arrived. As of yet, I’ve not witnessed a tie, which is required for the female to become pregnant. Each year inRead more
More Quick Pics
Top Photo: Amur maple seeds. It’s a warm day in February, just the weather for strolling around campus. Here’s a mere handful of what you might see while you’re out there this week. There’s much more out there than this small sample of goodies suggests. So what are you waiting for, get out and have a look around!Read more
Red Wolf Behavior
Top Photo: Oak (back) attempts to get a reaction from her enclosure mate Adeyha. This is the time of year I start to look for courtship or mating behavior in our wolves. All red wolves are born in April or May. Given the gestation period for red wolves averages 63 days, now through the end of February is the best time to witness breeding behavior in our red wolves. If it happens, it will happen soon. Our female seems toRead more
Adeyha and Anole
Top Photo: Adeyha makes appearance in red wolf enclosure. Seen more often than not inside the enclosure’s den via the den-cam, Adeyha can, at times, actually be seen walking around the wolf habitat. Here’s a few shots of the large (last weigh in at about 44 kg) male red wolf just before he sneaked back into the den to recline. Adeyha seems fond of the den, at least during daylight hours. Oak, our spirited female, likes to roam around theRead more
Adeyha Awakens, Red-shoulder Dries Out, Little Ascends
Top Photo: Adeyha makes an appearance. In a recent post I mentioned that our new resident male has taken to sleeping the day away in his enclosure’s man-made den. I’ve been hearing reports from various staff that he’s been seen out and about in the enclosure near the end of the day, four, four-thirtyish. I decided to follow the scuttlebutt and check it out for myself. Sure enough the first photo I shot of Adeyha, and the first time I’dRead more