Nature

Hempstead Lake and LI Shore

2021-04-21Sherry Felix8 Comments

On Saturday April 17th we went on a birding trip with the Linnaean Society of NY to Hempstead Lake SP, Point Lookout and Nickerson Beach in Nassau County, Long Island. It was a lovely group of people and a lovely day. I enjoyed the new Spring growth. It wasn’t a good bird shooting day for me. A highlight was a black-capped Chickadee collecting nesting material a couple of feet away from me. Another was the Harlequins.

Central Park with LSNY

2021-04-07Sherry Felix28 Comments

We went on a Linnaean Society of NY birding walk yesterday and took a few photos along the way. The Chickadee was so close that one could have touched it. These birds are not behaving naturally. This means some people are not respecting the park rules to not hand feed wild animals.

The USDA says, “Feeding wildlife can lead to a number of serious problems: Human food is not healthy for wild animals, and they do not need food from humans to survive. Wild animals have specialized diets, and they can become malnourished or die if fed the wrong foods.”

Also it can impact some birds migration. “Some scientists believe accipiters like Cooper’s hawks and sharp-shinned hawks forego migration in some areas due to the abundance of prey at bird feeders, a behavior called short-stopping.”

The worst thing to do is feed bread to ducks, geese, swans, and other waterfowl bread. Any bread not consumed by ducks pollutes waterways, threatening the other creatures in the ecosystem like fish, turtles, and other wildlife. There are healthy alternatives but I would recommend against it in a public park.

Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus), Central Park 4/6/2021

Spring in the Park

2021-04-04Sherry Felix20 Comments

It was a chilly day in Central Park on Wednesday the 31st of March. It was so lovely to see early signs of Spring.

Crocus (Crocus sativus), Central Park 3/31/2021

CP with LSNY

2021-03-15Sherry Felix23 Comments

It was lovely seeing my friends at the Central Park trip with The Linnaean Society of New York on Saturday. The leaders are the best and so helpful. We covered half of the Park for about 4 hours. I missed 9 of the 44 species of birds spotted. You are welcome to attend the excellent free programs and if you want to go on a trip and you are not a member let me know and you can come as my guest.

Tufted Titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor), Central Park 3/03/2021

Shawangunk Landscapes

2021-03-122021-03-10Sherry Felix10 Comments

The last of the Shawangunk Grassland NWR posts are these winter landscapes. We also stopped briefly at the nearby Wallkill River on the bridge at Galeville Road and Galeville Park next to the refuge. A muskrat was out feeding at the edge of the little pond near the feeders and I spotted a few deer feeding out in the grasslands.