northeast-flora-and-fauna

At Great Swamp , there is a bird viewing area that gives you a good view of an area of swampland (which didn't have much going on), and has a Bald Eagle nest in a tree on the opposite side of the shore. It's quite a distance, even with binoculars. (I'm sure a good spotting scope would handle the distance though.) When I went there a couple weeks ago, a couple people were listening to and (to some degree) watching a Bald Eagle confrontation. We could easily hear an eagle vocalizing. The narrative I was told was that the vocalizing was from an eagle on its nest. And there was a juvenile eagle in a nearby tree. It's unclear what the motivation of the juvenile eagle was, but the parent was obviously concerned that the juvenile could be a threat to her eaglets. You probably can't tell that that's a Bald Eagle, though the large nest probably infers one. April 14, 2021: Bald Eagle nest at Great Swamp And here's the juvenile Bald Eagle perched nearby. You can make ...

Last week I went to Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge in hopes of getting some frog and turtle pictures, but neither was around that day in any numbers. A couple people told me about "snakes" along a part of the boardwalk, so I went along the boardwalk fairly slowly to see if I could spot them. The snakes made the trip worthwhile. Ultimately I would see approximately 20 Northern Watersnakes out attempting to sun themselves (and maybe do some fraternizing). (It was overcast, and even rained lightly this day.) One thing that a clumsy photographer like me can appreciate is that the snakes were fairly willing to let me take pictures; I think only one snake dived into the water to avoid me. Here are pictures of the first 2 snakes I saw. April 14, 2021 at Great Swamp Photo 121032491, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) April 14, 2021 at Great Swamp Photo 121032520, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)