Nature Note: A Naturalist's Travels Through Nature

A touch of winter to cap a fantastic day This past weekend I did something amazing, I participated in the Superbowl. "What are you talking about?!", you might well gasp to yourself after reading the title. "The Superbowl happens in February and that's that." Well since I don't care about football enough to merit as a thing, I am instead talking about Mass Audubon's Superbowl of Birding XI which took place this Saturday in the counties of Essex in Massachusetts and Rockingham in New Hampshire. During the nine or so hours of birding that I participated in, I got to meet some of the young birders and lead the group called the "Hedwig Express" as we toured around the hotspots of Essex County. The purpose of the event was twofold. One was to promote competitive birding as a fun activity to pursue on a winter's day, as well as being a way to socialize and associate with other obsessive people with a similar passion. The basic idea was to c

There are both Glaucous and Iceland Gulls in this picture, but which is which? Can you tell the difference? After spending my birthday weekend birding with Alison, we decided to to hit up Jodrey Fish Pier in Gloucester in order to locate the Thick-billed Murre ( Uria lomvia ) that had been spotted in recent days. We came up short on that front, but came across a fairly uncommon winter sight. This lead not only to seeing both our first Glaucous Gulls ( Larus hyperboreus ), but also how they differed plumage-wise, from the nearby Iceland Gulls ( L. glaucoides ). After snapping a few pictures, I was initially at a loss to try and identify them. Since I'm newish to gull ID (my favorite plumage is that of a Ring-billed Gull ( L. delawarensis ) in its 1st winter plumage), I looked through my preferred guides and came up with a diagnosis. After browsing through the basic guides provided by Kaufman (least helpful) and National Geographic: Eastern Region (somewhat helpful), I con

Over the holidays I received three books that will hopefully spark my confidence in becoming more outdoor oriented and in tune with nature as this new year dawns. While I have always had an interest in the natural world and knew about certain wild foods like "sour grass", cattail roots, and pine needle tea, I'd never made a concerted effort to try and make it part of my life. Looking around at the world, we humans are causing a lot of problems. Global climate change, overfishing, and habitat destruction are just some of those problems and as a result, I've been thinking a lot about my role in the world and what skills and abilities I have to make it a better one if at all possible. I know one thing I'm good at is writing and expressing my love of nature and my interactions with it through this blog. Another thing I'm good at is teaching others about the natural world. When I was a teacher naturalist intern with Stony Brook Millstone Watershed Association, my

It's officially two days into 2014 and this snowstorm is terrifying! Well not really, but I can happily report my choice for bird of the year 2013, as well as, my resolutions (nature wise) for the year! This past year I failed to reach my goal of 350 species and only managed to reach 338, but that's still impressive for spending most of the year in New Jersey and having access to some of the birdiest areas in the country. I was graced with a few good rarities this year and with the Snowy Owl ( Bubo scandiacus ) invasion coming into full swing, it provided a nice finish to the year indeed. So many species to choose from, but ultimately Hedwig herself won me over! In case you didn't see, here are some photos of the immature bird that would become my bird of the year. Resolutions wise, I'm keen to begin practicing my outdoor teaching skills once more with my new job in Pennsylvania. As for my goals they are as follows: 1. Be creative. That can mean drawing, wri