Stony Brook Journal

Jr. Naturalists Go Fishin'

Last week after discussing some of the creatures that live in our wetlands we decided to go fishing and see them up close.  The kids arrived with poles and tackle in hand ready to rock and roll.  Except for one who wanted to fish for birds with his binoculars instead.  But we didn't mind because he brought us some delicious chocolate cookies that just got better as they heated in the sun!

We used a variety of techniques.  Worms, lures, and I did some fly fishing in between untangling.  Of course the first thing we did was crush the barbs on all of our hooks.  This allows for an easy release and less harm to the fish.  We caught a number of warm-water species; including Bluegill, Pumkinseed, Black Crappie (Pronounced croppie), a largemouth bass, and a chain pickerel.  Our dedicated birder viewed common yellowthroat, lots of orioles, spotted sandpiper, and more!  It was a great day and a wonderful experience.  These Jr. Naturalist just continue to impress me.

Taylor Yeager - Naturalist

Back at it!

I was only gone a short time and returned to find the trees leafing out and the birds singing.  I am in full swing preparing for camp and Bird a Thon.  The rest of the staff is all geared up as well, with various projects as well.  Our new windows are going into the program room as I type.  I am also looking forward to author Todd McLeish coming Thursday night at 6:30 to talk about his encounters with endangered species and give a slide show presentation. Feel free to come join us!

This morning I had the pleasure of another Early Morning Bird walk.  I was joined by some familiar and some new faces as well.  The weather was beautiful and so were the birds we spotted.  The cow path was the warbler hot-spot.  Above is we saw black-throated green, palm, and yellow-rumped warblers.  WE were also able to get a nice look at a warbling vireo in a budding red maple. The boardwalk greeted us with our first common yellowthroats of the year! However the yellow warbler proved difficult to spot?  We also enjoyed watching the Eastern kingbirds for a while. We checked Stony Brook pond for a spotted sandpiper, but we struck out.  I did find it while teaching a school group a little later in the day.  See below for this mornings full species list.

Taylor Yeager, Naturalist

Location:     Wildlife Sanctuary - Stony Brook
Observation date:     5/6/08
Number of species:     40

Canada Goose     X
Mute Swan     X
Wood Duck     X
Mallard     X
Common Merganser     X
Double-crested Cormorant     X
Great Blue Heron     X
Mourning Dove     X
Chimney Swift     X
Ruby-throated Hummingbird     X
Downy Woodpecker     X
Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted)     X
Eastern Kingbird     X
Warbling Vireo     X
Blue Jay     X
Tree Swallow     X
Black-capped Chickadee     X
Tufted Titmouse     X
White-breasted Nuthatch     X
Ruby-crowned Kinglet     X
Eastern Bluebird     X
American Robin     X
Gray Catbird     X
European Starling     X
Yellow Warbler     X
Yellow-rumped Warbler     X
Black-throated Green Warbler     X
Palm Warbler     X
Black-and-white Warbler     X
Common Yellowthroat     X
Chipping Sparrow     X
Song Sparrow     X
Swamp Sparrow     X
White-throated Sparrow     X
Northern Cardinal     X
Red-winged Blackbird     X
Common Grackle     X
Baltimore Oriole     X
American Goldfinch     X
House Sparrow     X

This report was generated automatically by eBird
v2(http://ebird.org/massaudubon/)

Early Birds 4/15

I don't have much time to blog lately. So, I am going to make this short and sweet. Just to update you folks on what is happening around here.  WE HAVE AN OSPREY VISITING THE PLATFORM!!!  This is the most promising it has looked for one to nest in 10 Years. Keep those fingers crossed. Also the first wave of warblers are starting to appear. Palm, pine and yellow-rumped have been spotted.  Turtles are courting and spring is here!  I am including the list from this morning's Early Birds walk. I will be gone all next week so please leave a comment with what you see on your next walk!

Taylor Yeager, Naturalist
Location:     Wildlife Sanctuary - Stony Brook
Observation date:     4/15/08
Number of species:     40

Canada Goose     X
Mute Swan     X
Wood Duck     X
Gadwall     X
American Wigeon     X
American Black Duck     X
Mallard     X
Green-winged Teal (American)     X
Hooded Merganser     X
Great Blue Heron     X
Osprey     X
Killdeer     X
Herring Gull     X
Mourning Dove     X
Downy Woodpecker     X
Northern Flicker     X
Eastern Phoebe     X
Blue Jay     X
American Crow     X
Tree Swallow     X
Black-capped Chickadee     X
Tufted Titmouse     X
White-breasted Nuthatch     X
Ruby-crowned Kinglet     X
American Robin     X
European Starling     X
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)     X
Palm Warbler     X
American Tree Sparrow     X
Song Sparrow     X
Swamp Sparrow     X
White-throated Sparrow     X
Dark-eyed Junco     X
Northern Cardinal     X
Red-winged Blackbird     X
Rusty Blackbird     X
Common Grackle     X
Brown-headed Cowbird     X
American Goldfinch     X
House Sparrow     X

This report was generated automatically by eBird
v2(http://ebird.org/massaudubon/)

Jr Naturalists' Day 3

Wow! It has been busy around here. As Marla has coined it. Chihuahua season, because everyone is barking about something. This busy season is what is great about a nature center. The camaraderie in accomplishing great things with limited resources.  Today I wanted to share with you what has been going on.

We had great early birds last Tuesday and Jr Naturalists Friday night. After our Jr Naturalist meeting we proceeded to get pumped up for Bird-a-Thon (BAT), our annual birding competition and fund-raiser. It was at that meeting that we were able to see 5 fox sparrows at our feeder at one time and enjoy some of the biggest pizzas I have ever seen! A sure sign that good things are to come for our BAT this year.  If you are interested in birding and/or fund-raising with us let me know.

Now, back to our Jr Naturalists. We added a 5th member this week and saw the first snapping turtle of the season! We went on our spin around the sanctuary and were able to enjoy many wonderful sightings.  Will was kind enough to tally everything in ebird and share his pictures with us for this blog. 

We started the afternoon out in the field, literally. Highlights were a pair of cottontails that let us approach closely and see them in detail.  We also saw sign of their browsing in the brush pile of fallen branches from the winter storms.

We next went to go observe our mallard nest. Yes! They are already on eggs. Our resident swans are  also currently making a nest.  It is quite a sight to see them snapping cattails and building their giant nest.  You can just make out the female from off of the boardwalk if you look closely.

Once again our diversity of waterfowl continues. This week we added a lone bufflehead to the ring-necks, wigeon, and gadwall.  The green-winged teal numbers have been really fluctuating lately.  While working our way closer to the bufflehead we spotted a muskrat with its meal.  It headed right towards us and then disappeared into the bank beneath our feet.

Well. I have to get back to work. We are busy preparing for our Big Night Extravaganza!!!!!!!! If you have never been you should consider coming. It is a great way to get children interested in vernal pools. Keep reading for our complete avian species list from yesterday. As always your comments are appreciated!

Taylor Yeager, Naturalist

Observation date: 4/3/08
Number of species: 29

Canada Goose X
Mute Swan 2

Wood Duck X
Gadwall X

American Wigeon X
American Black Duck X
Mallard X
Green-winged Teal (American) X
Ring-necked Duck X
Bufflehead X
Mourning Dove X
Downy Woodpecker X
Northern Flicker X
American Crow X
Fish Crow X
Tree Swallow X
Black-capped Chickadee X
Tufted Titmouse X
White-breasted Nuthatch X
American Robin X
European Starling X
American Tree Sparrow X
Fox Sparrow 3
Song Sparrow X
White-throated Sparrow X
Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored) X
Northern Cardinal X
Red-winged Blackbird X
Common Grackle X

Early Morning Birds etc...

I was joined by another wonderful group of people Tuesday morning at 7am. There were 9 of us in total.  The moon was beautiful on my drive in. We started off the morning by checking the field for an Eastern meadowlark that had been around lately. It did not show, but we were greeted by singing bluebirds instead. There was a male being harassed by 2 females. We also had a fish crow pass overhead while we were out and about. As we headed down the cow path to the first spillway, we saw some woodies shuffling about before we spooked them and got good looks at a female common merganser through the bare trees on Stony Brook Pond. Out on the boardwalk we were greeted by our usual smorgasbord of waterfowl. We have been lucky to have such great species diversity this spring. Our intern "Red," seen to the left in the red coat, has been working hard helping me census our waterfowl; I will include her counts below Tuesday's early bird list.  On our way back I was lucky enough to spot a fox sparrow! It quickly hid right after I had alerted the group. After some of our more experienced birders were only finding a song sparrow, I began to worry. I wanted them all to get a good look at this marvelous sparrow. It ended up not disappointing us and came into clear view kicking the leaf litter beneath it looking for food. Today (Wednesday) Myself and Mona T. (volunteer/birding enthusiast) were able to find 2 fox sparrows and hear their song!!  Keep scrolling down to see our list from Tuesday morning as well as the Waterfowl count. Don't forget to leave a comment. I would really like to see this become an interactive blog.

Taylor Yeager, Naturalist

Location:     Wildlife Sanctuary - Stony Brook
Observation date:     3/25/08
Number of species:     32

Mute Swan     X
Wood Duck     X
Gadwall     X
American Black Duck     X
Mallard     X
Green-winged Teal (American)     X
Ring-necked Duck     X
Hooded Merganser     X
Common Merganser     X
Great Blue Heron     X
Mourning Dove     X
Red-bellied Woodpecker     X
Downy Woodpecker     X
Northern Flicker     X
Blue Jay     X
American Crow     X
Fish Crow     X
Black-capped Chickadee     X
Tufted Titmouse     X
White-breasted Nuthatch     X
Eastern Bluebird     X
American Robin     X
European Starling     X
American Tree Sparrow     X
Fox Sparrow     X
Song Sparrow     X
White-throated Sparrow     X
Dark-eyed Junco     X
Northern Cardinal     X
Red-winged Blackbird     X
Common Grackle     X
House Sparrow     X

WATERFOWL NUMBERS

Location:     Wildlife Sanctuary - Stony Brook
Observation date:     3/25/08
Number of species:     9

Canada Goose     6    
Mute Swan     2    
Wood Duck     26    
American Wigeon     10
Mallard     25
Green-winged Teal     11
Ring-necked Duck     1
Hooded Merganser     4
Common Merganser     2

This report was generated automatically by eBird
v2(http://ebird.org/massaudubon/)

Jr Naturalists - Day 1

Today was the 1st meeting of our young birders group. Which we have now decided to call "Jr Naturalists" because we are interested in more than just birds. 

We started off with a bit of rain. So we used this opportunity to learn how to properly use our binoculars and the spotting scope. Everyone was excited to be together. Pointing out this bird or that and telling stories!  After we were all "focused" we briefly learned how to use a field guide and began our trek out to the boardwalk. 

All I can really say is look out for thes bright young minds.  We were seeing birds left and right. Even an eastern cottontail or two and some red squirrels.  We got some nice looks at a pair of hooded mergansers thourgh the scope. One boy looked the scope and shouted! Never being able to see a merganser so well before. Out on the boardwalk we found several American wigeon. Also gadwall, ring-necked duck, and wood ducks. Of course we see a great-blue heron, but we were not expecting to be able to watch it eat a meal! We were ahving so much fun that we had to scurry back to the nature center to be back in time. I am looking forward to our next meeting on the 26th.  To leave a comment. Click on comments below the post. Keep reading for a full speceis list.

Taylor Yeager, Naturalist

Location:     Wildlife Sanctuary - Stony Brook
Observation date:     3/20/08
Notes:     Jr. Naturalists
Number of species:     30

Canada Goose     X
Mute Swan     X
Wood Duck     X
Gadwall     X
American Wigeon     X
American Black Duck     X
Mallard     X
Ring-necked Duck     X
Hooded Merganser     X
Great Blue Heron     X
Killdeer     X
Ring-billed Gull     X
Great Black-backed Gull     X
Mourning Dove     X
Downy Woodpecker     X
Northern Flicker     X
Blue Jay     X
Black-capped Chickadee     X
Tufted Titmouse     X
White-breasted Nuthatch     X
American Robin     X
American Tree Sparrow     X
Fox Sparrow     X
Song Sparrow     X
White-throated Sparrow     X
Dark-eyed Junco     X
Northern Cardinal     X
Red-winged Blackbird     X
Common Grackle     X
House Sparrow     X

This report was generated automatically by eBird
v2(http://ebird.org/massaudubon/)

Welcome!

Thank you for coming to our new home on the web.  Here, you will find out what happens at Stony Brook when you are not able to be here with us.  We will feature trip and sighting reports, writings from our staff, photos, and more. The first photo we will feature is of a muskrat we were able to find on our Tuesday morning bird walk!  We look forward to hearing back from you as well. You can do just that by leaving a comment below.

Taylor Yeager, Naturalist