Nature Note: A Naturalist's Travels Through Nature

Memorial Day weekend has come and gone and I thought I'd share a quick update about some of my findings over the past week. I wanted to talk about plovers in particular. Why you might ask?  One reason is that they are ridiculously adorable. Another is that they are wonderfully talkative with their piping voices. Despite their notoriety and popularity with birders, shorebirds in particular are vulnerable to declines in population due to sharp declines in suitable migration stopover sites, food depletion, and in some cases, illegal hunting on their wintering grounds. Fortunately for us, many shorebirds species are still very common and the two birds I want to talk about in this posting are probably some of the more recognizable of the shorebirds (depending on where you live). They are the Killdeer ( Charadrius vociferus ) and the Piping Plover ( C. melodus ). I've talked about Piping Plovers on here before, but I don't think I've ever specifically focused on either my o...

So for the past few weeks here in Syracuse, it has been interesting seeing just how much nature permeates our surroundings and our daily lives. Syracuse is a lot greener in places than I ever expected an urban environment to be. The first thing one notices is all the concrete and stonework and cars and other industrial creations that fill the air and surroundings with their noise and looming presence. I've read about urban sprawls and jungles in books and magazines and seen it described in glowering tones on environmental documentaries, but seeing it up close and living in it, makes you realize that things aren't always as they seem. Sure the typical urban wildlife can be found in droves. Squirrels bound from tree to tree, while ants crawl between cracks in the sidewalk. The big birdy three consisting of Rock Pigeons ( Columba livia ), European Starlings ( Sturnus vulgaris ), and House Sparrows ( Passer domesticus ) swoop through the streets and trees, filling most pockets wi...

Hey all, I really do get annoyed with myself when I don't update here as frequently as I ought to, but the past month has been a whirlwind of sorts in terms of moving back "home" and then up to my new digs in Syracuse. As I'm writing this, I'm sitting in a studio apartment on the eastern side of the city (but not East Syracuse because that's a different place entirely) with the sun glaring brightly outside. The chirrupings of House Sparrows ( Passer domesticus ) and hum of traffic is especially apparent, along with the irregular screams of ambulances rushing to the medical facilities downtown and the occasional noises and conversations I hear from my neighbours.  So why am I in Syracuse? Why have I moved here? Well unsurprisingly, it's for work and it is my first full time position! Sometime after my last blog post about a Snowy Owl ( Bubo scandiacus ) that I saw in Biddeford, I accepted a position at the Rosamond Gifford Zoo. I left Maine soon afterwa...