History, Natural History & the Arts
Even if you’ve never ventured further into the forest than an urban park or a college campus, you’re probably familiar with Sciurus carolinensis, the eastern gray squirrel. While it’s easy to identify gray squirrels by sight, however, recognizing the various sounds they make is more complicated.
Their vocalizations – squeaks, moans, buzzes, barks, and clucks – can sound like noises made by cats, chickens, jays, catbirds, even ducks. [Read more…] about Squirrel Talk: Gray Squirrel Communication
Birdhouses are a simple addition to your yard that can provide nesting places for many kinds of birds and weeks of wildlife-watching opportunities.
Cavity-nesters, like tree swallows, house wrens, blackcapped chickadees, Eastern bluebirds, wood ducks, and American kestrels, all use nest boxes.
The type of birds you might attract depends on the size of the box and the nearby habitat; some birds prefer open fields while others prefer forests or wetlands. [Read more…] about It’s Time For Bird Nest Box Maintenance
The 2022 Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) notification season has ended, and the Department of Environmental Conservation posted the summary of this year’s HABs notices to the HABs Archive webpage.
During 2022, 198 waterbodies statewide were listed with “Confirmed HABs” on the NY HAB System (NYHABS). Over 1,600 HAB reports were collected, and of these, over 1,000 met criteria for a Confirmed HAB. The reports ranged from a single observation to widespread blooms that were persistent throughout the season. [Read more…] about Harmful Algal Blooms in NYS: A Season Summary
Due to an outbreak of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) in the St Lawrence waterway in Canada, an estimated 5-15% of nesting eider females died this year, negatively impacting the eider population, likely for several years. [Read more…] about Eiders Hit Hard By Avian Influenza; Little Response From DEC
I think of Adirondack conservationist and forever wild advocate Paul Schaefer (1908-1996) during whitetail deer hunting season, actually in any season, but particularly in deer season at his Adirondack cabin. From 1921 on, over a century now, Paul Schaefer and his family, friends and hunting club comrades in the Cataract Club ventured into the wilderness from cabins in the Adirondack mountains. [Read more…] about The Sagacious Whitetail
The Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation Snowmobile Bureau is reminding snowmobilers that despite the large snowfalls in the Tug Hill and in western New York, snowmobile trails are not open at this time.
For public safety reasons, grooming generally may not begin until the closure of Big Game hunting season. Snowmobilers should exercise restraint when operating snowmobiles before the start of the season. [Read more…] about Preparing For The Upcoming Snowmobile Season
There are a few topics that guarantee a historian an audience. Write a decent biography of Abraham Lincoln or James Madison, for example, and you are bound to have readers. Or, write something new and interesting about the Constitution and you might attract some attention. [Read more…] about The First Dutch Translation of the U.S. Constitution
This week on The Historians Podcast, Bob Gumson discusses his memoir, In Blind Sight: From Canarsie, Brooklyn with Love, Music and Mischief (Troy Book Makers, 2020). [Read more…] about In Blind Sight: From Canarsie, Brooklyn
Of all the British soldiers who served in North America during the American Revolution, none wrote more about his experiences than Roger Lamb. His service in two of the most important campaigns — the 1777 Saratoga campaign and the 1781 campaign through the Carolinas to Virginia — put him in the thick of some of the war’s most famous battles. [Read more…] about Roger Lamb’s American Revolution: A British Soldier’s Story Updated
Two Black men were shot and killed by a police officer in Freeport on a cold winter morning in 1946. Another was wounded. All three were brothers, two were World War II veterans dressed in their military uniforms. The ensuing outcry and investigations would spread far beyond the south shore of Long Island and bring the story of racial tensions on Long Island to the national level. [Read more…] about The Ferguson Brothers Lynching on Long Island (Podcast)