My latest "Bird Watcher" column in The Record and Herald News is about "chasing" the Mississippi Kites in Sterling Forest.
Jerry Barrack was nice enough to let me use one of his photos of one of the Sterling Forest birds.
(Thanks, Jerry!)
The link is here (but no photo).
The mystery butterfly found and photographed by Juilie McCall is a Red-spotted Purple.
It is new to NABA's Celery Farm list, which can be found here.
More on Red-spotted Purples here.
Julie McCall photographed this butterfly at the Celery Farm last month.
What is it?
The first-ever National Moth Week is coming up next month, and I am toying with the idea of doing a Moth Night or two of my own near the Celery Farm or possibly at the Fell House just to see what kind of moths we have by the Celery Farm.
On a lark, I set up my own moth-light setup in my backyard late night --a CFL blacklight and a halogen light in front of a white dropcloth.
Got some great-looking though smallish moths -- now I have to try to ID them. Nothing like a nice new learning curve!
Please e-mail me at celeryfarm (at) gmail.com if you would be interesting in attending an upcoming Moth Night in Allendale near the Celery Farm or at the Fell House.
Photos of some of the little guys seen last night follow.
Continue reading "Moth Nights, Anyone?" »
We see lots and lots of Frogs at the Celery Farm -- Bullfrogs and Green Frogs. But we almost never see toads.
So we are pleased to share this photo of an American Toad, taken
by Julie McCall three weeks ago.
Julie writes:
I was in the woods at The Celery Farm, not far from Barbara's Bog, taking photos of dragonflies, damselflies, and butterflies. I followed a butterfly down one of the paths, trying to convince it to land so I could identify it, when out of the corner of my eye I saw a sizeable lump ahead of me on the path.
I snapped a few photos of it from a distance, then reviewed them on my camera and realized it was a toad. I was able to get much closer and take a bunch of pictures without it doing anything at all.
Once I tiptoed past it and looked back, it had hopped one or two times and I got some photos from a different angle.
Once I got home I used my photos to help narrow down my ID... I believe it was an American Toad. It was probably about 4 inches long or so. It was a fantastic, gorgeous toad. :)
(Thanks, Julie!)