Category Archives: Mammals
Other Photos from Five Rivers
Spring’s Top 10 Wildlife Spectacles in the USA (The Nature Conservancy)
“Looking for an excuse for a road trip, or maybe just an afternoon at a local park? Here are ten top must-see natural spectacles that you can catch each spring….”
Eddie adds: The good news is that events in at least three of the ten categories (four, if you are a fly fisherman) happen here each year in the North East USA, so check out the suggestions in the above link, from The Nature Conservancy!
More Photos from our WWNP group trip to Montezuma NWR
To view the intial article and photographs, click here.
All of our ‘Wildlife Watchers and Nature Photographers’ [WWNP] group who went to the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge [NWR], near Seneca Falls, New York, are welcome to submit photographs for this gallery (as in please do so!)
As requested above, if other members of the group have photographs they would like to include in this post we would be very pleased to add them. Please re-size them to 600 pixels on the long side and e-mail them to me, as attachments, via: wwnp[AT]eddiewren[DOT]com — simply replace the [AT] and the [DOT] with the correct symbols.
- To go back to the original article and photographs, click here
Eddie
A Couple of Gems at Tifft Yesterday
After recently shaking off the tedium of a bad back that I’ve suffered virtually right through the winter, I took advantage of a few free hours yesterday to have a walk around the Tifft urban nature preserve.
When I arrived, at 8:00am, the temperature was just 18F (minus 8 Celsius) and there were no other cars in the parking lot. On the small patches of open water, at Lake Kirsty, adjacent to the preserve offices, were four Herring Gulls, a solitary male Red-breasted Merganser, a pair of Hooded Mergansers and a dozen Canada Geese.
Anyway, wrapped up like the Michelin man, I set off through the woods on my way to the South Viewing Blind (hide) to look at a frozen lake!
On the way there, I came across a few resting White-tailed Deer and stalked them carefully so I could get some shots of them lying down.
At the south blind there were only a couple of Canada Geese walking around on the ice and yelling at my intrusion, plus a few Black-capped Chickadees feasting on sunflower seeds that someone had left on the hand-rail (something Tifft staff ask people not to do).
It was while I was watching the chickadees, however, that I saw one of the day’s two gems. A first-year Northern Shrike (Lanius excubitor) settled in a tree above me — its youthfulness given away by some mottled coloration on its breast and belly. The sharply hooked upper beak — very like some hawks and eagles — gives this genus of fairly small birds away in an instant but, as its name says, this is the northern species. Its cousin, the Loggerhead Shrike (L. ludovicianus), spends its winters in the southern states. After identifying the bird, through my binoculars, I only had time for one distant ‘identification’ shot with my camera before it flew off, so while there’s a photograph of it in this post, it certainly isn’t a masterpiece! {:-)
For the British people who read this blog, you may have noticed that the scientific name of the Northern Shrike is the same as that for the Great Grey Shrike that is found in Europe — in other words, it’s the same species. Europe’s other shrike, the Red-backed (L. collurio) isn’t found in North America.
As my walk continued, I saw several other species of birds — all ones that could be expected here in late March.
At the other main blind, however — unsurprisingly called the North Blind — I was delighted to see a Coyote (Canis latrans) appear from behind the actual blind and walk away, over the ice on the lake, to the cat-tail bed on the far shore. Again, I was rather distant but I was certainly able to get a few pleasing photos. Coyotes certainly aren’t rare, they’re actually widespread, but getting to see one in broad daylight in such a photogenic setting is much less common. My own question is whether or not this could have been one of the “Coywolf” hybrids that have been spreading out from northern Ontario for the past few decades. Does anyone know the answer in relation to Western New York?
It annoys me intensely that I used to under-rate Tifft as a place to go. I now know it to be a very well-worthwhile preserve to visit and I do so as often as I can. It is rare that it doesn’t turn up something special.
Get further information about Tifft Nature Preserve here.
Anyone wishing to come along on any of the walks (weekly, except in winter) of the ‘Wildlife Watchers and Nature Photographers’ group, please e-mail: wwnp [AT] eddiewren [DOT] com (just replace the [AT] and the [DOT] with what they say, and leave no spaces. This is done to reduce spam to that e-mail address).
27 March 2014 — Eddie Wren
Basking in the Sun during Buffalo’s March 12 Blizzard!
Yes, I admit I was having fun at Buffalo’s expense. I was very briefly in California with perfect (lucky!) timing to avoid the March snow
storm in WNY, and having finished my work at 2:30pm I hurried back to my hotel, swapped my suit for jeans and a T-shirt and headed south from Ventura down the Pacific Coast Highway, also known simply as “Route 1”.
I was on my way to the beautiful hill roads in the Santa Monica mountains — an area I have been lucky enough to get to know quite well over the past few years — but it would take a better man than me to simply drive down “the PCH” without stopping to admire the views!
At one of my stops, I found and photographed a couple of California Ground Squirrels (Otospermophilus beecheyi), an interesting but skittish creature that lives in a communal burrow, but each of which allegedly has its own private entrance tunnel.
Nearby, I saw and photographed a small bird, in scrub, but for the life of me I can’t find anything quite like it in Sibley or my other bird books. The nearest thing I can think of is a female towhee, but that doesn’t fit, either. Can anyone help me out with the I/D, please?
Around 5:40pm, I reached Decker Canyon Road and headed off up one of my favourite hill roads in that area. (All of them are enjoyable but they are narrow so great care has to be taken on the many blind curves, in case someone is coming the other way.) By that time of evening, the temperature was still in the mid-70s….. a little different to ‘back home’ in Buffalo!
America’s Bats in Danger from a Disease that First Occurred here in Upstate New York
It is quite possible that you have already heard about the White-nose Syndrome that is doing terrible damage to cave-dwelling bats in the USA, but what exactly is it!
According to the USGS, “White-nose syndrome (WNS) is an emergent disease of hibernating bats that has spread from the northeastern to the central United States at an alarming rate. Since the winter of 2007-2008, millions of insect-eating bats in 22 states and five Canadian provinces have died from this devastating disease. The disease is named for the white fungus, Pseudogymnoascus destructans, that infects skin of the muzzle, ears, and wings of hibernating bats.”
White-nose syndrome was first discovered in North America in upstate New York in February 2006, in a cave adjoining a commercial cave visited by 200,000 people per year. The fungus appears to have been introduced to North America from Europe. It has been found on cave bats in 12 countries in Europe, where bats appear to be adapted to, and unaffected by, the fungus. Because bats do not travel between the continents, this strongly suggests the fungus was newly introduced to North America by people — likely cave visitors who transported it on their gear or clothing.
An estimated 6.7 million bats have died since 2006 because of an outbreak of white-nose syndrome. It has wiped out entire colonies and left caves littered with the bones of dead bats. The epidemic is considered the worst wildlife disease outbreak in North American history and shows no signs of slowing down. It threatens to drive some bats extinct and could do real harm to the pest-killing services that bats provide, worth billions of dollars each year, in the United States. [Source: Center for Biological Diversity]
The latest news articles on this disease are available from White-noseSyndrome.org, here, and this includes the fact that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is awarding $1.4 million in grants for work on the deadly bat disease, with a further $2 million available in a second round of grants.
What can you do to help?
The key things are:
Avoid possible spread of WNS by humans
- Stay out of caves and mines where bats are known – or suspected – to hibernate (hibernacula) in all states.
Honor cave closures and gated caves.
- Take a look at ‘Human Spread of White-Nose Syndrome: Why Decontamination is Important‘ poster.
- Take a look at For Cavers on the Service’s website.
Avoid disturbing bats
- Stay out of all hibernacula when bats are hibernating (winter).
Be observant
- Report unusual bat behavior to your state natural resource agency, including bats flying during the day when they should be hibernating (December through March) and bats roosting in sunlight on the outside of structures. More difficult to discern is unusual behavior when bats are not hibernating (April through September); however, bats roosting in the sunlight or flying in the middle of the day would be unusual. Bats unable to fly or struggling to get off the ground would also be unusual.
Click here for further advice.
(Compiled by Eddie Wren, from relevant websites)