The US Fish and Wildlife Service officially proposed taking 23 plants and animals off the endangered species list Wednesday, because they have not been spotted in the wild and are believed to be completely gone from an earth experiencing human population growth and a climate crisis. Only 11 species previously have been removed due to […]
Tag: Pileated Woodpecker
A Bird Sanctuary In Killingworth, CT Pt. III
The transition from one season to the next at the Bird Sanctuary in Killingworth, Connecticut, might be as evident due to changes in the weather as to changes in wildlife seen and its behavior. The calls of peepers are a distant memory as a very infrequent croaking of a frog is heard in the early […]
A Bird Sanctuary In Killingworth, CT Pt. II
It was fairly quickly learned that the feeders used to attract wildlife didn’t entice just the birds. In mid-winter as the squirrels appeared to become more numerous, they became destructive and a disturbance to the winged creatures. Eastern Bluebirds briefly investigated a pair of bird houses that had been hung for them but the squirrels […]
Where are the birds?
Every year I get several letters like one that came in mid-February from WXPR listener Doug Heise, who lives in Rhinelander and has been feeding birds for 30 years. He wrote about the species he’s fed over the years: “So many different varieties. chickadees, nuthatches, many types of finches, Pine Siskins, Chipping Sparrows, cardinals, Blue […]
Thankfully Pileated Woodpeckers Aren’t Extinct
I remember a few years ago there were reports of a possible sighting of an Ivory-billed Woodpecker which was thought to have been extinct. It must be quite a sight to see a 20″ long woodpecker with a 30″ wingspan. We don’t have any Woodpeckers quite that large in Connecticut but we do have the […]
Sanibel Gardens Preserve
On 12 June 2016, wildlife blogger France Paulsen observed a Fork-tailed Flycatcher at Sanibel Gardens Preserve just north of the Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge Bailey Tract on Sanibel Island. Fork-tailed Flycatcher is a rare Code 3 vagrant in the ABA area. The species’ breeding range is in Central and South America. The Fork-tailed Flycatcher […]
The Cruelty of a South Wind
One of my friends recently moved to Duluth from Bemidji. He seemed utterly distraught on April 14, when the high here was 43 degrees but 78 in Bemidji. I don’t know if T.S. Eliot was thinking specifically about Duluth when he wrote that April is the cruelest month. Other places may have it as bad, […]
Lake Apopka, 11/21/2015
Lake Apopka has been spectacular over the last month or so. For starters, a month ago, a Brown Booby was blown inland by a storm, found Lake Apopka, and now apparently doesn’t want to leave. It’s been living on the lake for the last month, usually too far away to see with binoculars. However, today […]