A nice day to be out in the Wetlands

  With daytime air temps reaching fifty-nine degrees on Wednesday (12/17), at least one of our resident turtles made it out for a little sunbathing. A male yellow-bellied slider was awakened by the intense sunshine of the day. The sun’s warm penetrating rays apparently reaching and warming the bottom of the pond sufficiently to stimulate the turtle into crawling out on a log and bask away the afternoon.     It’s in no way unusual to see a turtle outRead more

Around the Wetlands

Top Photo: Banded tussock moth caterpillar dangling from a silken thread as it lowers itself to the ground. On any random day in the Wetlands, if you keep your eyes opened wide, you’re likely to see many things. Here’s just a few of the sights that I witnessed during the second half of October.     I was standing near the Main Black Bear Overlook when I noticed a caterpillar on one of the leaves of a winged elm tree.Read more

Look Who’s Back!

  I first noticed the grebe towards the end of the day on the 16th of October. I hadn’t seen one here in our Wetlands since 2012, September to be exact.     These smallest of grebes likely to be found in the east, are by no means rare, or even uncommon. A trip to any of the big lakes in our area during late fall or winter should score a look at one. Despite their relative common local occurence,Read more
2 Comments

What Happened to the Green Herons in the Wetlands

I’ve seen zero activity this past week at either of the green heron nests in our Wetlands. I saw a heron flying away from the Wetlands Saturday (6/21) and one flew in to fish late in the day Wednesday (6/25). What has happened to the two heron nests that were started, completed and in which eggs had been deposited, at least in the nest visible from the Main Wetlands Overlook. The other nest, which is difficult to see, was placed in aRead more
3 Comments

Turtles, Turtles, Turtles

Over the past three weeks I’ve come across 13 juvenile Yellow-bellied Turtles. I’ve either spotted them myself at known nest sites or Museum guests and staff have spied them, and in some cases, brought them to me after finding the little herps wandering around the campus. Who knows how many of the turtles have gone unseen while making their way to the Wetlands here at the Museum. How many of the turtles wander off in the wrong direction, away fromRead more
1 Comment

A Fishing Expedition

At the lower terminus of the Boardwalk in Explore the Wild I noticed a small snake (perhaps 18 inches at best) coiled in the smartweed that grows there. The snake’s head stuck out of the water, ready to pounce, its tongue flashing out to smell the air. There were also many minnows splashing about the shallow water. Some of the fish were in large groups feeding, a feeding frenzy. Others were in small groups swimming in and out of theRead more
2 Comments

What will the weather bring us?

Weather systems often bring in unusual birds. Strong cold fronts sometimes carry with them birds from the far north. Unusually cold weather creates strong needs within birds to feed, simple survival is the name of the game. During extreme cold periods you often see birds at your feeders that are absent during mild weather especially when the leaf litter is covered with snow. On Thursday, a day when upon awaking from a three dog night, the air temperature was aRead more