Tag Archive | New York
Red-Winged Blackbirds are Home Again
When I lived in New York, I always looked forward to the return of the red-winged blackbird as it was a sign that spring was coming. The males returned first, set up breeding places, defended these territories from rival males and awaited the return of the females. I often saw them at the tops of […]
Hunting for the Elusive Pyxie
In the spring of 1976, I drove two miles on dirt roads to a remote area of Connetquot River State Park Preserve in New York where I was a biologist. The purpose of my trip was to rediscover a rare plant called Pyxie Moss (Pyxadanthera barbulata). Despite its name and looks, the plant is not […]
The Venomous Caterpillar
During a recent trip to Prospect Mountain in the foothills of the Adirondacks in New York, my grandchildren found black and white fuzzy caterpillars climbing on the rocks near the top of the mountain. I cautioned them not to touch these hickory tussock moth caterpillars because its hairs can attach to your skin and inject […]
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 […]
Mermaid’s Toenails
Another shell, we found along the wrack line of the beach at Sunken Meadow State Park on New York’s Long Island was the delicate Jingle Shell. Jingles have shiny, thin, translucent shells. This organism gets its name from the sound made when the shells bump against each other when strung on a necklace. These bi-valve […]
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