Nature Note: A Naturalist's Travels Through Nature

As crazy as it sounds, the Inner Harbour of Lake Onondaga in Syracuse has been graced with an unusual winter visitor in recent weeks. While the usual reports of Glaucous ( Larus hyperboreus ) or Iceland Gulls ( L. glaucoides ) swirled about on the listservs, few surprses seemed likely. That all changed to sudden pandemonium, as local birders erupted online with talk of an American White Pelican ( Pelecanus erythrorhynchos ) spotted on Lake Onondaga in mid January! Alison and I were lucky enough to see this rare visitor (and a possible first for the county in winter) yesterday, before heading up to watch the feeders at Beaver Lake Nature Center in Baldwinsville. After spotting some local birders watching a culvert under the bridge supporting Spencer Street, we were rewarded with an excellent view of this huge white bird. As we watched it emerge from the culvert, its massive pouched bill swelled and shivered. It didn't seem to mind the 20 degree weather as we shivered ourselve...

In the months since I started working in Syracuse, my birding has taken a hit with the needs of working life sucking away free time on the weekends and evenings. However, as the dead of winter threatens us with cold winds and driving snow, there have been moments and opportunities to foster ornithological curiosity and observation. Most of the birding that I do in Syracuse is usually accomplished during my morning and evening commutes to and from the zoo. Just as I was leaving work today, an adult Cooper's Hawk ( Accipiter cooperi ) belted over Conservation Drive and into the tangle of cedars and houses on the other side of the fence. Even in the city, nature finds a way in, around, or throughout, eventually. Anyway, this morning as I was driving down Lodi Street, waiting for the most treacherous traffic lights I've ever experienced to change green, I noticed a small bird navigating the wind. It looked more aquatic in its handling of the wind, diving and cutting upwards and...

Imagine a quiet river ambling by on a warm summers eve. The sun is starting its downward shuffle towards the horizon and a warm glow fills the skies above. I have to be honest, I was worried about finding a quiet spot to go fishing in the city or even just outside.  Cities, in my opinion, are atrocities (no pun intended). Entirely too many people shunted into many small spaces with the expectation that they will get along with one another. It's an introverts nightmare and personally, I have made it my mission to get outside the city of Syracuse as much as possible. The city itself isn't all that bad. I'm still not used to being in such close proximity with my fellow species, Homo sapiens and don't know if time will change that, but until then, I will continue to escape to the countryside come the weekend. I'm lucky to have so many interests in the outdoors and have been blessed with an internal drive to experience nature up close. Whether it was Beaver Lake a fe...

Sciurus Niger, Black Squirrel When you move to a new place, it often comes with new sights and scenes. One of the more unexpected examples has been the color of the local squirrels. Squirrels in the northeast are already named for their predominant colors (with the exception of flying squirrels), but as the picture to the left shows, they also come in black. While they seem like a different species, these "black" squirrels are actually a melanistic morph of the regular Eastern Grey Squirrel ( Sciurus carolinensis ). In the past, this didn't prevent prominent scientists and naturalists from labeling them as such however.  Even though color morphs were certainly known about in the 1800s, there was still the constant taxonomic war known as "lumping and splitting". Even today, there are still battles and hypotheses being waged about certain species either being regarded as unique from one another or as simply being a subspecies. In biology, species and su...

Lepus Sylvaticus,  Grey Rabbit* For the past few weeks, I have the regular pleasure of watching the behavior of a common mammal species out the back of my apartment. Eastern Cottontails ( Sylvilagus floridanus ) are a common sight on the "green patch" that fills the space between my apartment window and the Worker's Compensation Building not ten feet beyond.  D espite living in a mid-sized city in central New York, wildlife abounds on small green patches around the city, but are only noticed by those with the sharpest eyes and greatest awareness of the potential of their natural surroundings. My initial impression of the city was that it was a barren concrete wasteland populated largely by pigeons and sparrows, with rats running rampant in the sewers below. The only potential interlude to the hulking grey masses and hard rivers of tarmac lacing their way through a highly altered landscape are any number of city parks, playgrounds, and gardens. Syracuse is blessed...

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...