northeast-flora-and-fauna

Last November I spotted 2 American Kestrels . Or did I spot 1 American Kestrel twice? It's difficult to say. Butterflies sometimes have wing damage that can differentiate them. With birds though a damaged wing is more likely to be fatal. Sometimes a bird will have unusual plumage that can be used to differentiate them, but on an overcast day and quite a bit of distance between me and the bird(s) I can't really tell you if these are pictures of the same bird or not. My impression is that this is a popular area for American Kestrels - I've seen them here before and know that they nest in the area - so seeing multiple kestrels wouldn't be surprising. If they were uncommon I would be more inclined to think they were the same bird. The sightings were in somewhat different locations since I was walking, so it's not like the birds were in virtually the same spot. The sightings were 17 minutes apart; a kestrel could easily have flown from the 1st spot to the 2nd. Ultimatel...

For Throwback Thursday I thought I'd (attempt to) briefly discuss the long, complicated history of our Rock Pigeons (aka Rock Doves).  First off, there are considered to be 12 subspecies of Rock Pigeon kicking around today, suggesting that these birds were adapting to a widespread number of environments well before human civilization emerged. Once human/pigeon relationships emerged, things only got more complicated: The Rock Pigeon is native to Eurasia and North Africa, but not to the Americas. There used to be a wildly common pigeon native to the US called the Passenger Pigeon , but massive hunting and habitat loss by Europeans led to their extinction. By at least 5000 years ago, ancient Mesopotamians domesticated (formerly) wild Rock Pigeons; they're considered to be the 1st bird that humans tamed. They may have initially domesticated them for food but also used them to send messages. Around the same time Ancient Egyptians were using them both as message-carriers and in ritu...

I recently looked up what a group of Wild Turkeys is called. Besides the extremely-generic-but-acceptable term "flock", a set of Wild Turkeys can be called a " rafter ". There were at least 6 turkeys in this particular rafter foraging in a small grassy area adjacent to some woods. There are a bunch of collective terms for animals ; it sounds like many of these were intended to be clever witticisms .  November 3, 2022 at Duke Farms Photo 251083899, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) November 3, 2022 at Duke Farms Photo 251083909, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Here's an American Goldfinch I met last November. Some people think they migrate because they don't see tiny flamboyantly yellow birds bopping around during the winter. They might be surprised to learn that American Goldfinch don't "dress" like that all year round; the males have their bright yellow plumage only during breeding season, then go back to a much more subdued plumage (which also provides better camouflage to hide from predators) during the cold weather months. Females are also more colorful during breeding season, though the difference between their summer/winter plumage is a lot more subtle. Most birds have a preference for eating bugs but will switch to seeds in the winter when arthropods are difficult to find. Goldfinches on the other hand are fairly committed vegetarians; they're happy eating seeds all year round. I'm sure the type of seeds they eat varies depending on what's available during a season, but if you're at a dinner par...

Here's someone I met last October that ought to be familiar to almost everyone, a Bald Eagle . This is also perhaps the closest I've been to a wild Bald Eagle [1] (though this pair was also fairly close). While I didn't consider myself especially close, the eagle did fly off after a few minutes; it's possible my presence instigated the departure [2]. This eagle was near water, and thus near fish. Behind the eagle was Duke Farms' Vista Lake, where herons, cormorants, and Ospreys get their fish procurement done. Still, I don't often see Bald Eagles on the property; my guess is they prefer fishing in the Raritan River instead. Duke Farms has Bald Eagles that nest on the property ; I don't know if this was either of them.  November 2, 2022 at Duke Farms Photo 250356447, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) [1] You can certainly get closer to them at The Raptor Trust , and the Delaware Valley Raptor Center used to give presentations where eagles woul...

Here's a Common Drone Fly . As the most widespread syrphid in the world -and- as a bee mimic, it's been suggested that they've been misidentified in photographs as bees more than any other species. And they are very widespread, being pretty much everywhere with the (not uncommon) exception of Antarctica [1] [2]. The males are very territorial, and not just against rival males of their species. They apparently dart after and attempt to chase away bees, wasps, butterflies, and (presumably) other types of flies. Since they can't sting and they're a lot smaller than many butterflies, it's unclear they'd win a fight against any of these guys [3]. Perhaps it's a bluff that frequently works because the other insects don't want to risk a fight against a foe they don't understand? It sounds like defending their territory is so ingrained in them that when they need a break from all that darting around, they actually leave their own territory for some R...

I heard a little commotion on my patio last autumn; an old iced coffee can I had rinsed out and let drain out there was knocked over. My guess was that a squirrel or bird was the culprit, but when I looked outside I saw a Virginia Opossum waddling off my patio.  I scrambled to dig out my camera and scurried outside to see if I could get a picture, but the little fella wasn't in sight. I was suspicious that an opossum wouldn't be able to get very far with that small head start, so I looked at some of the cedar-like trees outside my apartment. And sure enough, the opossum was up in one of them. Opossum apparently means "white animal" in Algonquian . (That doesn't sound like a perfect description of them, but perhaps "gray-bodied animal with a white face" doesn't roll off the tongue in Algonquian any better than it does in English.) They've leant their name to other similar-looking marsupials in Australia that are called possums  [1]. Slightly con...