Nature Note: A Naturalist's Travels Through Nature

A picture worth a 1000 words. Personal photo. As Forrest Gump once professed, "Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're going to get." Birding is a lot like that as well. I remember going on a birding trip when I was about ten with a teen birder at Wayland Community Gardens in eastern Massachusetts expecting that his advanced years would clearly be an asset to finding a multitude of rare and unusual species. The birds it seemed, had other ideas. The only bird we saw that day was a lone black-capped chickadee investigating the twigs of a bare oak. I was extremely disappointed to say the least, not only because of the poor turnout, but I was annoyed at myself for not speaking up more. I guess, I was just a shy kid. Fast forward to about two weekends ago, I spent birding the Trinity Center property looking for birds for: 1. relaxation purposes, and 2. providing a checklist to submit to eBird the next evening in front of an audience of Road Schola...

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...