A 3-minute PBS video about Tifft Urban Nature Preserve, Buffalo, NY

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Presumaby shot as a filler for use in between various programs on the WNED television channel, I’ve just happened across a 3m 20s video about Tifft that is well worth watching.

In it, Lauren Makeyenko talks about the history and achievements of Tifft. It would have been nice if there could have been mention of — for example — the fact that the current bird list has 264 species named on it but I’m very aware of how editors often chop important information from news and documentary clips!

View it for yourself at: http://video.wned.org/video/2365212936/

Did you know that flies can manoeuvre like fighter jets (in tiny fractions of one second)?

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“The flies start turning away from approaching threats in half the time it takes you to start blinking at a camera flash, and finish throttling up their flight motor in one-fiftieth of the time it takes you to complete the blink. It is little wonder we find them hard to swat.” [Professor Graham Taylor, Oxford University]

Another fascinating excerpt — this time from Prof. Michael Dickinson of Washington University, Seattle — is: “…they can fly like an ace at birth. It’s like putting a newborn baby in the cockpit of a fighter aircraft and it knowing what to do.”

Read the full article (with video), from the BBC, at: http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-26943442

Dragonfly Conservation in the USA

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If you are interested in conservation and have an interest in insects, in their own right, or odonates in particular (i.e. dragonflies and damselflies), you are likely to find this 1 hour 23 minute YouTube video to be very informative indeed.

The video is of a webinar developed for Natural Resource Conservation Biologists that covers dragonfly life history, ecological roles, conservation status, habitat needs, and their intersection with the NRCS Wetland Reserve Program.

A separate, very useful website for anyone interested in odonates is: www.odonatacentral.org

The costs of inaction on climate change will be “catastrophic”, according to U.S. Secretary of State

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[John] Kerry was responding to a major report by the UN which described the impacts of global warming as “severe, pervasive and irreversible”.

He said dramatic and swift action was required to tackle the threats posed by a rapidly changing climate.

Our health, homes, food and safety are all likely to be threatened by rising temperatures, the report says.

Scientists and officials meeting in Japan say the document is the most comprehensive assessment to date of the impacts of climate change on the world.

In a statement, Mr Kerry said: “Unless we act dramatically and quickly, science tells us our climate and our way of life are literally in jeopardy. Denial of the science is malpractice.

“There are those who say we can’t afford to act. But waiting is truly unaffordable. The costs of inaction are catastrophic.”….

Read the full article, from the BBC.

Follow the northward migration of Monarch Butterflies on a map of North America

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The URL for this highly-interesting map was sent to me by Andrea Burke. View it at: http://www.learner.org/jnorth/maps/monarch_spring2014.html

More detail is obtainable from Annenberg Learner.

More Photos from our WWNP group trip to Montezuma NWR

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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!)

Bald Eagle (immature), by Kathy Fenna. Copyright 2014. All rights reserved.

Bald Eagle (adult), by Andrea Burke. Copyright 2014. All rights reserved.

Bald Eagle in flight, by Anrea Burke. Copyright 2014. All rights reserved.

Osprey at nest, by Kathy Fenna. Copyright 2014. All rights reserved.

Osprey by Andrea Burke. Copyright 2014. All rights reserved.

Northern Harrier (female) in flight, by Andrea Burke. Copyright 2014. All rights reserved.

Song Sparrow, by Andrea Burke. Copyright 2014. All rights reserved.

Lesser Yellowlegs, by Andrea Burke. Copyright 2014. All rights reserved.

Red-winged Blackbird (male), by Andrea Burke. Copyright 2014. All rights reserved.

Red-winged Blackbird. Esther Kowal-Bukata. Copyright, 2014. All rights reserved.

Andrea Burke. Copyright 2014. All rights reserved.

And last but not least, by Andrea Burke, Snow Geese in flight (1). Copyright 2014. All rights reserved.

Snow Geese in flight (2), by Andrea Burke. Copyright 2014. All rights reserved.

Snow Geese. Esther Kowal-Bukata. Copyright, 2014. All rights reserved.

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

WWNP group visit to the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge [NWR], Seneca Falls, NY

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Today’s WWNP group visit to the Montezuma NWR in the Finger Lakes region of New York State was a gem, both in terms of the weather and the 41 bird species seen.

About half of the group when we first arrived

When we arrived, about 8:00am, the sun was in a cloudless sky but there was still a fairly significant frost lying and large areas of the ponds were still under ice. Initially we all went on the ‘Wildlife Drive’ around the Main Pool, which turned up a wealth of waterfowl, a solitary wader (lesser yellowlegs) and countless industrious muskrats. After that, our five cars went their separate ways to various viewing areas and we re-grouped at noon, for lunch and a laugh, followed by a second trip around the preserve.

Trumpeter Swans. Copyright 2014, Eddie Wren, all rightes reserved.

Northern Harrier (female). Copyright 2014, Eddie Wren, all rightes reserved.

Lesser Yellowlegs. Copyright 2014, Eddie Wren, all rightes reserved.

The birds seen were:

Trumpeter Swan
Snow Goose
Canada Goose
Green-winged Teal
Blue-winged Teal
Mallard
American Black Duck
Northern Pintail
Northern Shoveller
Gadwall
American Wigeon
Ring-necked Duck
Greater Scaup
Bufflehead
Hooded Merganser
Ruddy Duck (David G.)
Pied-billed Grebe
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Egret (Susan W.)
Osprey (at nest sites and flying)
Bald Eagle (including a surprising group of 11 immatures)
Northern Harrier
Red-tailed Hawk
American Kestrel
American Coot
Sandhill Crane
Killdeer
Lesser Yellowlegs
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull

Bufflehead (male). Copyright 2014, Eddie Wren. All rights reserved.

Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Eastern Kingbird
Blue Jay
American Crow
Tree Swallow (migrating flock)
American Robin
European Starling
Song Sparrow
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle

Muskrat. Copyright 2014, Eddie Wren. All rights reserved.

If anyone who was with us at Montezuma has any more species’ names that need to be added to this list, please just let me know.

Similarly, would all the photographers who were in the group — i.e. most of you! — kindy forward two or three of your best shots to me so we can make a gallery of the day’s images that aren’t just by Andrea and I…. please! {:-)

Speaking of Andrea, she has already sent me some great photos which I will be posting as soon as I can on page two of this day’s write-up and these will then be linked here.

Gallery of photos by Kathy Fenna, Esther Kowal-Bukata and Andrea Burke: click here

Eddie — 6 April, 2014