Nature Note: A Naturalist's Travels Through Nature

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...

After spending a mid March Monday afternoon birding at Montezuma NWR, I decided to head over the Beaver Lake Nature Center to see if I could find any Snows (the geese, not the egrets or the owls). I didn't luck out there, so on a whim I decided to look for the Long-eared Owls that had been reported earlier in the month. I didn't expect to see them until I heard the screaming call of a jay in the conifers by the Bog Trail. I stopped dead on the boardwalk and looked into the branches, hoping to see something. Round, yellow eyes stared back at me through the tangle of conifer boughs and bare branches. They were rimmed by a rusty orange face and gold-trimmed horns while a black beak rested below those watching eyes. I gasped with shock as I was gazing , unexpectedly, at a Long-eared Owl ( Asio otus )! I was so excited! I manically clicked away, grumbling as the dribbling rain threatened to dampen the camera lens and ruin the image. The owl continued to stare as I cleaned ...

Sciurus Hudsonicus, Hudson Bay Squirrel, Chickaree Red Squirrel This third installment in my series, Encounters with Audubon's Mammals features a personal favorite of mine: the American Red Squirrel ( Tamiascurius hudsonicus ). About a month ago, my girlfriend Alison and I visited Beaver Lake Nature Center in Baldwinsville, NY to watch the bird feeders. It was calming to sit and watch birds both small and not so small flit about on a bitter winter day. While the flocks of finches and other seed eaters jostled for control of the sunflower seeds above, beneath the feeders were two mammals that usually cause much trouble whenever they appear near feeders. I am of course talking about squirrels. In my first post, I mentioned how I kept seeing black squirrels all over Syracuse and how in certain parts of America, they just happen to be commonplace. In most parts of Central New York, seeing a black squirrel is practically guaranteed. The American Red Squirrel is a New World...

As I mentioned in my weekend post about the American White Pelican ( Pelecanus erythrorhynchos ), Alison and I headed up to Beaver Lake Nature Center to watch the action at the feeders and to spot some year birds for our lists as well. As I write this, I thought about deviating from my usual "describe how the day/event went" style and instead create an unofficial guide to the species we saw at Beaver Lake. So without further adieu, here we go. Beaver Lake Nature Center is a 600+ acre park located in Baldwinsville, New York and features 9 miles of hiking trails, abundant wildlife, a wide range of habitats, and a 200 acre lake popular amongst local canoeing and kayaking fans. It has quickly become our favorite park to visit and so we decided that on Saturday afternoon, we would visit the main building to watch the feeder birds flit about and snarf away many, many sunflower seeds. The first birds we noticed were the American Goldfinches ( Spinus tristis ) in their dull straw...

Fox Sparrows ( Passerella iliaca ) are big birds both structurally and in terms of how little I get to see them. I got to see one briefly in a tangle of twigs and leaves while I was walking the trails of Beaver Lake this afternoon. I was partially trying to get away from the city for a bit, while also trying to figure out what to write about. As I wandered, I wondered and as I wondered, I worried. I worried about not consistently updating my blog twice a month and what that would mean for my two regular readers (three if I'm lucky!) I worried about my writing skills not improving and that I might not be getting anywhere. After a worryingly indeterminate amount of time, I noticed I was just was walking along a trail towards god knows where so I doubled back and headed up the Bog Trail. At a little over half a mile, the trail snaked into a boardwalk that headed out over a maple bog and out along the pond. As I walked along, I could hear the jingling calls of White-throated Sparrows...

There are a lot of interesting things people have chosen to write about in this world. Some focus on the politics and problems of the world at large, while others write about their pet hobbies and ideas. I have chosen to write about an obsession of mine which is as large and varied as the world it encompasses. Those of you that visit regularly (despite the slow updates) know that the subject this blog covers is all things nature.  But why nature?  It seems like a simple question, but really it can be answered in so many ways. I will never know what precisely perked my interest in nature to start with. Maybe it was the day I watched a blackbird play over the garden hedge in Wales as a young boy, or the first time I ran terrified from my fishing rod when I caught my first ever Bluegill ( Lepomis macrochirus ). Perhaps it was the first time I canoed with my family down the Sudbury River taking in the smell of the water, the Red-winged Blackbirds ( Agelaius phoenicus ...