Nature Note: A Naturalist's Travels Through Nature

Today was a busy day. Firstly being John James Audubon's birthday (over 229 years ago), I felt I needed to pay a proper tribute to a man that inspired not only myself, but many others to get to know the natural world a bit better. It was also an important work day for volunteers to come out and help with maintenance projects on the property where I work (and live for the time being). In order to escape the slew of volunteers that were to descend, I decided to head out to a local birding hotspot to try and find some spring migrants. The night before, I looked up Norristown Farm Park and Evansburg State Park and eventually decided to travel to the former because it was slightly closer and seemed to have a more diverse range of habitats than the State Park. As I arrived I heard the clear chipping notes of a Chipping Sparrow ( Spizella passerina ) in a nearby spruce. His rufous crown and dark eyeline were immediately noticeable as he continued to chatter away as I got together my bag a

Happy Easter all! I was up in Massachusetts this weekend visiting with my family and then the rest of the time with my girlfriend, Alison, and her family. As of this post, I got five year birds for my year listing project (I'm hoping to break 223 species this year) and got some fantastic photos of our escapade as well. My girlfriend works as the coastal waterbird monitor at Allen's Pond Wildlife Sanctuary in South Dartmouth where she monitors and assists with the protection of endangered shorebirds such as Piping Plovers ( Charadrius melodus ) and Least Terns ( Sternula antillarum ). The terns haven't shown up yet, but the plovers have, and they were busy courting and setting up scrapes when we arrived. We participated in a Saturday morning bird walk with several members of the Paskamansett Bird Club on Little Beach and the nearby marshland. As we left, we walked through a small field with nest boxes erected for the bluebirds and returning Tree Swallows ( Tachycineta bico

So this past Sunday, I visited a cool spot called Pennypack Trust in Huntington Valley to check out whether I could get some early warblers that were migrating through. When I had arrived, it was already 5 o' clock and I only had about an hour and a half of light, but I managed to take a good number of pictures. As I headed out, a male Northern Cardinal ( Cardinalis cardinalis ) hid in a tangle near the feeders. While a favorite of many feeder watchers and birders, cardinals are a lot more shy and retiring than people realize and are more likely to heard making their obvious chip notes from the undergrowth or by the male's sweet, ringing song in the morning and afternoon. A male Mallard ( Anas platyrhynchos ) made an appearance with his mate and dabbled around in a small pond near the entrance. I marveled at the different patches and swatches of color that were apparent on its body. The second photo shows the speckled back suggesting that this bird might be younger