Winter Posts

Spring, er, Winter Update by , Ranger

February 3rd, 2012

I saw two butterfly species on this second day of February, several Sleepy Oranges and a Mourning Cloak. Spring Peepers have been calling, as mentioned in an earlier post. Today, I actually saw one. Besides the snake being captured by a Red-shouldered Hawk last Friday, Kent (Animal Department) reported seeing what was probably the same [...] Read the rest of this entry »

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Let’s not forget the others by , Ranger

January 30th, 2012

With so much talk about herons lately I don’t want to forget the other residents of the Museum’s wild parts. Here’s what some of them have been up to. A few birds… Several turtles… And the heat goes on… And something left over from summer… It wouldn’t be out of the question for those eggs [...] Read the rest of this entry »

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Corn On The Cob by , Ranger

January 26th, 2012

I should say that the squirrel in the photo very much appreciates the animal keepers here at the Museum. It was the keepers who tossed the corn into the Black Bear Enclosure. The corn was meant for the bears to eat but the squirrel beat them to the punch. Happy squirrel. Read the rest of this entry »

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What’s the last thing a fish sees… by , Ranger

January 25th, 2012

before it’s snatched up by a heron? The heron in the above photo is actually looking down at me, not a fish, but you get the idea. The heron was in a pine tree above the path in Explore the Wild. What’s interesting about the photo is that it clearly illustrates the fact that herons [...] Read the rest of this entry »

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Red shoulders? by , Ranger

January 23rd, 2012

People who are not familiar with the species often look at me with confused eyes when I tell them that the hawk perched in the trees before them in the swamp here at the Museum is a Red-shouldered Hawk. Why would they name this hawk “red-shouldered,” and where are the red shoulders? A Red-tailed Hawk [...] Read the rest of this entry »

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The Harrying of the Ardeidae by , Ranger

January 18th, 2012

For the past several years we’ve had a Great Blue Heron (GBH) in the Wetlands on nearly a daily basis. It seems to be the same blue heron, or at least it behaves in the same manner each time that I see it, it’s people shy and stays on the far side of the Wetlands [...] Read the rest of this entry »

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What else do they eat? by , Ranger

January 12th, 2012

It was a cold and rainy end to the day, again. I was standing at the Red Wolf Enclosure with a few visitors talking about the wolves and their status in today’s world. All of the sudden, a Sharp-shinned Hawk came barreling in from the right hand side of the enclosure. Birds that had been [...] Read the rest of this entry »

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Eagle Cam Update 2012 by , Ranger

January 10th, 2012

Last year around this time I posted about a web cam with a live view of a Bald Eagle’s nest at Jordan Lake here in central North Carolina. The nest is once again active. Two eggs were deposited in the nest sometime between December 2-8 and are being incubated at this time. The link to [...] Read the rest of this entry »

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Receipts on trees? by , Ranger

January 6th, 2012

It’s winter and the trees, most of them, don’t have leaves on them. But it was pointed out to me by Meredith (Master Teacher here at the Museum) that several small trees on the south side of the Wetlands still had some of their leaves attached, though they were all attached to the tree in [...] Read the rest of this entry »

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The Ice Cometh and the Ice Goeth by , Ranger

January 5th, 2012

The first few days of the year brought with them the first ice over of the Wetlands. The ice will soon be history, all gone. I, or we, know that the ice will be gone within a day or two since the TV, internet, and radio tells us these things ahead of time. But for [...] Read the rest of this entry »

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