This VA squirrel has white, gray and rusty fur at all different lengths and angles. Can you figure out what’s wrong?
Keep reading Reader question: what’s up with this squirrel’s raggedy fur?
 A Barnacle goose that somehow migrated from Greenland onto the wrong continent is beloved by Brooklyn birders, but shunned by Canada geese. Keep reading Goose from Greenland has many Brooklyn fans, but Canada geese not among them  Lepidopterist, or mothers, use a concoction of beer, bananas and molasses to bait certain sap-eating moths. Otherwise, try a bright light on a cloudy, moonless night. Keep reading Moths drawn to lights, rotten beer, often against their best interests  Artist Julian Charrière gave the despised pigeons of Venice’s St. Mark’s Square a flamboyant makeover in green, blue and red. Tourists went nuts for the pretty birds. What did the other birds think? Keep reading Would you be nicer to pigeons if they were green?  Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand says we need to hurry up and kill Canada geese at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge near JFK because bird-plane strikes are up–but Canada geese haven’t hit planes there in years. Keep reading Gilibrand rushes killing geese at refuge near JFK, where they haven’t hit a plane in nearly 2 years  Brooklyn great horned owls branching–hopping around their nest tree, thinking about taking their first flight. Keep reading More of Brooklyn’s secret owl family  The Prospect Park owls have hatched two chicks that can are now big enough to flap around and think about flying. They’re the first raised in the borough since records were kept. Keep reading Brooklyn hatches its first native great horned owlets in a century  Two male house sparrows were in such a brawl last week my friends and I wondered if they were somehow stuck on each other, like elk with locked antlers. They were rolling around in the gutter, beaks clasped on each other in a seeming death match. My friend Sam picked them up to separate them. They just flew across the street and continued fighting. I’m sure it was a battle for a mate or maybe who gets to move into the best lamppost in Park Slope. This is why people hate it when sparrows show up in their bird houses: they’re really aggressive about kicking out any bird they perceive as an intruder, going as far as destroying eggs and chicks of native birds.And how they invaded North America. SEE ANIMALS IN THE NORTHEAST (NY, NJ, MD, MA, ME, NH, VT, CT, RI, PA) Where to SEE WEIRD BIRDS (All the interesting birds: pelicans, puffins, prairie chickens, vultures, hummingbirds) Keep reading Macho house sparrows  gray tree frog David FitzSimmons, author of Curious Critters and photography instructor, dances with the creatures he photographs for a half hour or so to get to know them. “I try in images to convey some kind of personality,” he says. The dance involves making his partner comfortable and getting into unusual positions himself. “I try to shoot on eye level. We sort of look down on them.” And, yeah, he knows that some people cringe at using the word personality with animals. Well, I cringe at their cringing. He’s not thinking the squirrel feels romantic love for its mate, but the attitude and emotion that becomes clear when you get to know any animal. “A snake could be timid or particularly aggressive,” he says. “The crawfish [in the book] has got his claws up and seems particularly aggressive. The gray tree frog seems spiritual and humble.” Aside from a few technical tips–like putting a snake over a hat to get them comfortable before a shoot–FitzSimmons loves getting students of his photography workshops excited about little and common creatures, knowing their enthusiasm will lead to conservation of their subjects. He’s one of four professional photographers that lens-makers Sigma agency sends out nationwide. He teaches literature at Ashland University. For his most recent book, wrote Curious Critters, which we reviewed here, he photographed animals against a pure white background. His choices were local–from his own backyard to some of Ohio’s animal tourist attractions. His daughter helped, spotting the cover’s teeny Keep reading Willdife photographer David FitzSimmons dances with frogs Photographer David FitzSimmons gives local birds, frogs and other common animals the spotlight in a kids book with sharp macro pictures and funny text. Keep reading Curious Critters: local animals with excellent PR |
SUBSCRIBE TO THE BLOG
|
|
|
Copyright © 2013 AnimalTourism News - All Rights Reserved |
||
Recent Comments