Top Photo: Family of geese pass behind recently fledged family of northern rough-winged swallows The young swallows are watching their parents fly overhead, and begging for food. Each year a family of northern rough-winged swallows brings their newly fledged young into our wetlands for training. The adults want the young birds to hit the skies and catch their own insects on the wing. The fledglings seem more interested in begging for handouts than learning how to hawk insects. But eventuallyRead more
Posts tagged: #wetlands
Nest Box Update 5.6.25
Top Photo: Eastern bluebird eggs. We have added seven new individuals to the local avifauna, four eastern bluebirds and three Carolina chickadees. All six of our nest boxes are without nestlings. Though, two have nest material from two different species and are slowly under construction. ——————————— At the Cow Pasture, a house wren has added to it’s meager nest in the past week. It doesn’t seem urgent. There were two twigs noted on last week’s inspection, a handful more thisRead more
What “I” Saw Last Week (swallows, goslings, spring leaves, herps…)
Top Photo: Tree swallow delivers grass stems to nest in wetlands. Nothing but photos of a handful of sightings from the previous week. What did you see? Ranger GregRead more
Nest Box Update 4.30.25
Top Photo: Eastern bluebird eggs. There have been strange goings-on along our little bluebird trail here at the museum. Two nest boxes which had had healthy chickadee nestlings have been discovered to now have dead or missing nestlings or eggs from the nests. One nest box is still unchanged and has bluebird nest material within. One previously empty nest box has what appears to be a clue in the fatalities and disappearances of our chickadee nestlings, two twigs. —————————— TheRead more
Blue Corporal and Other Odes*
Top Photo: Male blue corporal. As mentioned previously on this blog (April) blue corporals are early season dragonflies. They’ve usually come and gone by the time the “big” six species of dragonflies begin to make themselves seen. That is, the six species of skimmers (Libellulidae) that you might find at just about any body of water in the state, certainly any pond or lake throughout the warm spring, summer, and fall seasons. Those six species are: Blue dasher Great blueRead more
Nest Box Update 4.8.24
Top Photo: Eastern bluebird eggs. We have four active nests, three belong to Carolina chickadees, and one is maintained by eastern bluebirds. One other nest box has had nesting material placed inside by a bluebird but has been inactive for the past month. One box is empty. —————————— There’s no activity at the Cow Pasture nest box. There’s been no sign of interest by either chickadees or bluebirds. An empty berry basket is what we’ve seen each week we checkedRead more
April Is Big
Top Photo: Just out of nest, this yellow bellied slider was headed for the water when it was noticed and picked up by visitors. April has arrived, a big month in the Carolina Piedmont, a transitional month. Turtles that have spent the winter in the ground where their mothers deposited them as eggs last summer are making their way to water to begin the next phase of their lives. If they make it past this first summer they stand aRead more
The Beginning of March (Spring)
Top Photo: Groundhog (Marmota monax). Groundhogs, or woodchucks, are members of the squirrel family, a ground squirrel. The one shown here lives under a large oak stump that lays on its side in Wander Away opposite the Sailboat Pond in Catch the Wind. If you’re quiet while passing through Wander Away you might get a glimpse of the large rodent. Can you spot the Canada Geese in the photo below? We currently have three pairs vying for territory in theRead more
Handsome Ducks and Pond Sliders
Top Photo: Ten hooded mergansers that showed up in our wetlands the first half of February. A handful of photos of a modest raft of hooded mergansers and a small bale of sliders on a warm February day. All it takes is a few days of sunshine with temps in the fifties and the yellow-bellied and red-eared sliders will be out basking. Have a good one! Ranger GregRead more