This Snowy Owl visited our area from the Arctic in December. Doug Crooke, a tourist from Fairfax, spotted the owl and took the photo seen above. The owls are in the middle of an irruption where large numbers of a species move far beyond the normal range. Google “Snowy Owls” and you can enjoy reading local newspaper reports of the owls being spotted all along the East Coast. For information about theories about the causes of the Snowy Owl irruption visit eBird.
Snowy Owl at Yorktown Battlefield
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Master naturalists explore, learn about environment … and share those lessons with community
Historic Rivers Chapter president Patty Malone with park ranger Dorothy Geyer.
Story by Kathy Van Mullekom, Special to the Daily Press (Newport News, Va.)
Naturalists explore nature and share with others. Virginia master naturalists are people curious about nature, enjoy the outdoors and want to be part of the natural resource management and conservation efforts in the state. See full story in the Daily Press
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Seig & Felice’s Presentation “Nature Photography for Naturalists”
Seig Kopinitz and Felice Bond presented a wonderful program on photography at last night’s meeting. You can here: download the PowerPoint presentation Nature Photography for Naturalists This is a very large file (over 68MB) so it will take a while to download.
Posted in Education, Photography
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NQP Bluebird Monitoring Team Nominated for Volunteer of the Year in York County
The New Quarter Park Bluebird Monitoring Team was nominated for a Volunteer of the Year award by Molly Nealer of York County. The team received the accolade at the April Board of Supervisors meeting at York Hall, April 16, 2013. Team leaders Jan Lockwood and Lois Ullman, as well as team members Joyce Lowry and Jeanette Navia were on hand to receive the award. HRC members Shirley Devan, Nancy Barnhart and Sara Lewis (who originally started the whole Bluebird Monitoring Project for the Historic Rivers Chapter in the first place) also attended the meeting.
Posted in Citizen Science, In the News, Members
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Record Butterfly Count at Tip of Eastern Shore
…or very close to a record. Final tally is not yet available but the team at Kiptopeke State Park observed 35 species of butterflies Sunday, July 29, 2012. Considering that the high species count for the entire circle was 41, we were very pleased with the day’s count. Seven members of Historic Rivers Chapter of VA Master Naturalists participated in this fun count. Led by Brian Taber, the Kiptopeke team included Susie Engle, Les Lawrence, Hart Haynes, Cheryl Jacobson, and Shirley Devan. Elisa Enders from Portsmouth helped out too! Many thanks to Brian Taber, President of the Coastal VA Wildlife Observatory, the sponsor of the event, who knew just where to look for the butterflies.
Participating on another team in this circle was Adrienne Frank and Gary Driscole.
Photos here are by Hart Haynes whose photos helped identify several species in the field. Thanks, Hart!
How many of these butterflies can you identify?
Posted in Citizen Science, Insects
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