Nature Note: A Naturalist's Travels Through Nature

There is a small pond on the Trinity Center property I walk past everyday and is exceptionally buggy. Even when you are covered head to toe with 25% DEET bug spray, it seems to have no effect. The other day, as I rounded a bend, something lifted off from the top of a gnarled cedar. A tall bird croaked with agitation, flying away on long wings and extending a snaking neck. The bird in question was a great blue heron ( Ardea herodias ), a charismatic and recognizable marsh bird that is familiar to most people. Despite their common presence around wetlands, ponds, and rivers, I have heard them mistaken for another tall marsh bird, and are sometimes called "blue cranes". Immature great blue seen near Bogue Sound in Pine Knoll Shores, NC. Photo by me. Bird misidentification isn't a new issue. Even as naturalists and budding ornithologists like John James Audubon and Alexander Wilson were traveling the country identifying the birds they could; even they used colloquial n...

A lovely time was had in Florida by myself and my friends, but this being a birding blog, I'm going to post the pictures I'm most excited about and I hope you enjoy them too. Poking it's head out of the bush, this Northern Mockingbird ( Mimus polyglottos ) peers around the neighborhood. It didn't seem particularly bothered by my presence, but it did keep an eye on me. The hybrids keep showing up. Mallard x American Black Ducks ( Anas platyrhynchos x rubripes ) are fairly uncommon in the Northeast, but it feels like the Mottled Ducks ( A. fulvigula ) down here have the same problem. It would be interesting to get the stats on the threat to the breeding population from errant Mallard breeding fiascoes. It always seems to be males that are present. Very rarely, if ever have I seen female hybrids. The characteristics of the male Mallard and female Mottled are well noticeable here. A lonely decoy keeps watch over the chaos taking place within the Mottled Duck ge...