Nature Note: A Naturalist's Travels Through Nature

199. We usually see this number (more often in decimal form) when browsing store shelves for groceries or cheap stationary, but as of this evening, this number represents an achievement. I am one bird away from reaching my goal to observe 200 species of birds in 2016! This week has been one of the most productive for birding I've had in a long time. Ten species have boosted my year birding total from 189 to one step away from a hard won goal. Here is the story of how this attempt was made! "Where are those butter-noses?" On Monday, my girlfriend and I had a chance to visit Gooseberry Neck in Westport, MA to try for scoters and other winter waterfowl. Despite our youthful energy, the weather at this time of year is hellbent on making you regret leaving any heated space. The Massachusetts coast is known for two things during the winter months: bone-chilling cold and blustery gales and it certainly delivered both on that day. As I scanned the western horizon for bi...

In three days, it will be the final week of 2016. While many will see it as the end of a trying and packed year, I see this final week as an opportunity. As of tonight, I am 11 species away from my goal of seeing 200 species of birds for the year. Since graduating from college in 2012, I have always tried to observe (both visually and audibly) over 200 species of birds per year. That year, I reached 228 species. In 2013 and 2014, I managed to skip over the line with 225 and 221 species respectfully, but started the decline into the high hundreds last year with 171 total species. In those three previous years, my career has taken me from Connecticut to Massachusetts, back to Connecticut, down to New Jersey, over to Pennsylvania, back to Massachusetts, briefly up to Maine, and finally to Central New York where I currently reside. From a resume building standpoint, this is pretty impressive, but as a birder with a achievable goal, this was extremely disappointing. My uprooting from Ma...

This week, Cornell's birding website eBird launched a new feature on their bird identification app, Merlin Bird ID . While the app has been around for a while, this is the first time that one can take a picture of a bird and use it to identify what you've seen in the wild! To most people, this is another sign of technology integrating with the modern field guides to provide more accurate ways of identifying birds. In my opinion, this has given rise to another comparison. Personally speaking, I think that the time of the Pokédex has come! The original PokéDex from the Pokémon anime. How retro. For those of you not familiar with the Pokémon franchise and its overall goal, you might have heard a little about it this July when Niantic released Pokémon Go! for Android and iPhone. The premise of the game is to capture all 151 original Pokémon that appear randomly across the country in different habitats. Some Pokémon only appear in towns and cities, while others might only ...

I love old nicknames for birds. Whether they are folk names, sportsmans colloquialisms, or even names from other languages, learning how other groups of people identify certain animals and plants is always an interesting journey through the history of human culture and wildlife identification. The title of this post refers to an old folk name for a common yard and feeder bird, the nuthatch. Here in the northeast, we have two species of nuthatches; the white-breasted ( Sitta carolinensis ) and the red-breasted ( S. canadensis ). White-breasted nuthatch Red-breasted nuthatch Both species are perhaps best known for their tree-scaling ability that would make any free climber jealous of their skills. Many ornithologists have been equally amazed by the skills of the nuthatch. The economic ornithologist, Edward Howe Forbush noted in his Birds of Massachusetts that: "They seem to have taken lessons of the squirrel which runs down the tree headfirst,  stretching out his hi...

Well, that went well! With the election season over in a big way, I can say with certainty that no one truly expected the orange man with wispy hair to win the highest office in the land. Those of us with blue hearts and political leanings sighed despondently at such news, so naturally, we all needed to escape after the election results of this past Tuesday. I did so by heading to Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge. I had a quest for myself and the goal was to find a rare visitor that had appeared on the main pond for several weeks this year. In fact, not only did I find one far flung traveler on this day, but two more graced my presence in and around Montezuma. The first target I sought was a duck. While that may not seem that exciting, the duck in question was a Eurasian wigeon ( Anas penelope ), a duck more at home in the marshes of Slimbridge than the backwoods of central New York. Despite living and visiting the UK frequently in my life, I had never gotten the opportunity to see...

The sound of the ocean slapping the rocks of the causeway heralded the arrival of another car to the rutted parking lot. Over the sea wall, Horseneck Beach with its daredevil para-sailers danced over the distant swells while gulls dark and light swirled over the mile long spit jutting into Buzzard's Bay. Alison and I stepped out of the car and looked around. It was good to be home.* As we stood on the rocky shores of Gooseberry Neck in Westport, Massachusetts, we watched as sanderlings, scampered back and forth along the sands while being chaperoned by herring gulls. We sat on a few boulders that lead down the eastern side of the neck and watched the relay. The sanderlings would run towards the retreating surf to pick at the minute crustaceans and periwinkles that were caught in the pull of water and sand. After busily picking at the sands for only a few moments, they were chased back by the rushing waves to begin their relay again.  The gulls, being far less particula...

Our houses are more lively than we sometimes expect. We invite small creatures to live in our midst by hanging feeders and nest boxes outside our homes and while some respectfully keep to themselves, others will overstep their welcome. I was burgled a few months ago by a squirrel I rescued from our dumpster and while T.S. (Trash Squirrel) only took an apple, it was still a crossing of barriers.  That squirrel's neighbors also engage in remodeling efforts on the eaves and walls of the apartment, chewing holes for access to the warmth within. Other animals like starlings and wasps take over these holes when the squirrels leave, raising their young in a prefabbed space. We have small visitors as well.  The occasional spider or beetle will accidentally find itself inside our apartment and it will be my job to gently escort them outside to the hallway or swiftly eject out of the window, depending on my mood. More than often than not, our home is plagued by fruit flies. They sit...

It's important to take time to slow down even when you're a naturalist. Life can rev you up so quickly, so efficiently, that even in your daily routine, you might fail to notice a new spiderweb forming on a nearby window or the chewed remains of a walnut left by a squirrel on the front step. Recently, I have been looking to flowers to help buoy my mood. Alison has left for Nevada and although it's only been a week since I've seen her, the absence she left is palpable. I am alone and feel it as well. In an effort to try and motivate myself and brighten up the apartment where we have lived for the past four months, I bought a bouquet of sunflowers. I love sunflowers. Alison loves sunflowers too. They did an excellent job for a few days, but now their bulbous yellow crowns are drooping and fruit flies have taken up residence on their hairy stalks. As I write this, one is perched gingerly on the underside of one stalk, vibrating every time my fingers strike a key. I tho...

Adult snapping turtle at Beaver Lake in Baldwinsville, NY About two weeks ago on a visit to Beaver Lake Nature Center in Baldwinsville, NY, I spied a snapping turtle ( Chelydra serpentina ), paddling in the shallows of the pond. Rising from the muddy depths with plodding steps, it poked its head out of the water for a quick breather and a glance around. Fortunately I wasn't planning on going swimming that day, but certainly many a swimmer has felt the rush of adrenalin and pang of fear as they notice these ancient reptiles cruising past their toes! Snapping turtles have always had a fearsome reputation. Their fast and powerful bites are what enables them to capture fish, frogs, snakes, mice, and carrion, as well as some plant matter as well. Their bite force, while powerful, isn't the most powerful of all turtle species. According to a study by scientists from University of Amherst, University of Miami, and University of Massachusetts found that while the snapping tur...

In the United States, we are blessed with a bounty of birds. We have some of the most iconic birds in the world from the stately bald eagle ( Haliaeetus leucocephalus ) and whooping crane ( Grus americana ) to the diverse collage of songbirds like warblers, finches, and bluebirds. That being said, there are some species of birds that rarely, if ever make it to America's shores. Just this past May, my girlfriend and I missed our chance of seeing one of these birds. A curlew sandpiper ( Calidris ferruginea ) had decided to show up about 40 minutes west of the Biggest Week birding festival in Oak Harbor, OH. As we arrived at the hallowed ground it had graced for several days before (which was essentially a flooded field in the middle of flat Ohio farm country) it instead had decided just minutes earlier to depart to places unknown. This got me thinking about what birds I might want to see, but couldn't due to my current geographic location in the countryside of central New Yor...