If you’ve ever been in Explore the Wild and looked out over our Wetlands here at the Museum you may have noticed that there are two wood duck nest boxes planted there. One is on the far side of the Wetlands, the other on a small island about halfway across the water. The nest boxes are there in an attempt to convince a pair or two of the hooded mergansers that winter here at the Museum into stayingRead more
Posts tagged: #wetlands
A Fine Day…Week
The last several days have been quite pleasant. The local fauna have been responding to the uncharacteristically mild nature of our current meteorological situation. In other words, it’s been real nice outside lately and some of our resident wildlife are taking advantage of that niceness. Come on out and enjoy some of this fine weather yourself, you never know when it’s going to rain, snow, sleet, or worse, so get it while you can. See youRead more
Waterfowl Update
The mergansers that had been occupying our Wetlands disappeared for four or five days, only one or two being seen on any given day. They now seem to come and go; one day they’re here, the next they’re not. However, I’ve not see their numbers approach the 30 plus of a several weeks ago. I now see anywhere from 10 to 12 at a time. Another duck species which has returned is the bufflehead. One arrived last NovemberRead more
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
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
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