Tag Archive | Long Island
The Hairy Fern
One of the earliest ferns to poke through the ground in freshwater wetlands in the eastern U.S. and Canada is the Cinnamon Fern. As is true of many ferns when this plant first appears, it looks like the top of a fiddle thus it is called a fiddle head. This “fiddle” will unfurl into a […]
Beautiful Blue Jays
One of my fondest memories as a 10-year-old child was seeing these brightly colored birds in the wild when my family moved to a rural area from a suburban post World War II development where rows of cape cod houses and strip malls took the place of potato farmland. I was accustomed to seeing the […]
The Amazing Seahorse
I love seahorses. Go to any aquarium and you are likely to see a tank full of these fish. In the natural world, they live in the coastal waters of tropical and temperate regions. I occasionally found them in the marine waters off of Long Island in New York. There are about 45 species worldwide […]
A Duck That Nests in Trees
In pine barren wetlands, on New York’s Long Island, where black gum and red maple trees dominate the landscape, a mother wood duck calls to her ducklings from the edge of a small pond. The ducklings are only a day old and covered in down. They are still in the nesting cavity of an old […]
The Bald Eagle Makes a Come Back
Before retiring, I worked as a biologist and environmental educator on Long Island in New York. Stationed at the Connetquot River State Park Preserve, a 3,500 pine barren park, I always became excited when a bald eagle appeared during the winter, a rarity at that time. One year, an extended cold spell froze lakes and […]
naturechirp 