Bird Control for Building Renovations

Sometimes contractors working on building renovations run into properties that have had serious bird problems--including pigeon infestations in abandoned buildings.  To help contractors get on the right path, here's a bird control article I recently had published with Retrofit Magazine online.

Crossing the Finish Line--1000 Species Challenge Final Day

Sora, Cold Brook Preserve, NJ

The day started with my not knowing exactly how many species I needed to cross the 1000 species threshold, as I hadn't tallied up all my species from Saturday.  But I thought I needed at least 30 species to finish the day.

After teaching my classes at East Stroudsburg University, I stopped by the greenhouse and picked up what I hoped would be at least a dozen species.  Then I stopped by Cold Brook Preserve to look for the Sora that had been there the last two days.  After many days of looking for this bird this fall and last fall, it was nice to get good looks of an adult Sora feeding on the edge of the small marshy pond there.

Then I headed home to be with my kids as they got off the bus from school.  We wandered the yard and turned over logs hoping to get enough species to finish out the month.  By bedtime I was sure I had gotten 1000 species, but didn't know what my final tally would be.  As it is, the final tally will go up as I identify additional plants and moths that I have photographed this month, but for now at least the goal was met.

Later I'll post a recap and retrospective of what I learned doing this challenge this month.  I'm already thinking about how to go bigger next September :-)

Final Species Tally: 1004+

New Species

Jumping Spider	Salticidae sp.
Orb-weaving Spider	Araneidae sp.
Wolf Spider	Lycosidae sp.
Sora	Porzana carolina
Woodlouse	Oniscidea sp.
Ant	Formicidae sp.
Band-winged Grasshopper	Oedipodinae sp.
Bumblebee	Bombini sp.
Fruit Fly	Tephritidae sp.
Large Carpenter Bee	Xylocopinae sp.
Orange Sulphur	Colias eurytheme
Northern Short-tailed Shrew	Blarina brevicauda
Birdbill Dayflower	Commelina dianthifolia
Bowstring Hemp	Sansevieria hyacinthoides
False Lilac	Leptodermis oblonga
Fire Lilly	Cyrtanthus elatus
Fuchsia	Fuchsia hybrid
Grass Aloe	Aloe verecunda
Hippeastrum	Hippeastrum vittatum
Hippeastrum	Hippeastrum aulicum
Hummingbird Bush	Anisacanthus quadrifidu
Lindheimer's Beeblossom	Oenothera lindheimeri
Pelargonium Storksbill	Pelargonium sp.
Pink Friesland Sage	Salvia nemorosa
Porcupine Tomato	Solanum pyracanthum
Purple Passionflower	Passiflora incarnata
Red Clover	Trifolium pratense
Rose Cactus	Pereskia grandifolia
Spotted Touch-Me-Not	Impatiens capensis
Turquoise Crossanda	Ecbolium viride

1000 Species Challenge Homestretch--Day 28 Update

Northern Brown Snake

A big day, starting early driving down to Philadelphia to take my Rosemont College students on their first birding expedition to the John Heinz NWR.  We met up with a small group and walked the dike trail out into the refuge, and picked up a lot of new birds for the month including Bald Eagle, Peregrine Falcon, and Marsh Wren.  I also picked up four reptiles--including a Northern Brown Snake, and several turtles.


On my way home I stopped off at Todd Marcus Birds Exotic in Delran, NJ and picked up a couple dozen exotic birds, mostly parrots.

The last species of the day reflects the difficulty of identifying many species in the food trade--wild caught Chinese Crawfish.  One can only hope these are accurately labeled, though I can only guess that they are native Asian crawfish, which would be from the family Cambaridae.  I don't have any other crawfish on my list, so it is a new species for the month even if it is misidentified.  But it sure would be nice to have species labels on seafood--and hats off to those companies that I found this month that do label their packaging.  Lets hope they are accurately labeled!



Cumulative Species Total: 974

New Species
African Grey Parrot                            Psittacus erithacus

American Black Duck	Anas rubripes
Bald Eagle	Haliaeetus leucocephalus
Black-capped Parakeet	Pyrrhura rupicola
Blue-and-yellow Macaw	Ara ararauna
Blue-fronted Amazon	Amazona aestiva
Blue-headed Parrot	Pionus menstruus
Blue-winged Teal	Anas discors
Brown-headed Parrot	Poicephalus cryptoxanthus
Canary	Serinus canaria
Chestnut-fronted Macaw	Ara severus
Cockatiel	Nymphicus hollandicus
Curl-crested Aracari	Pteroglossus beauharnaesii
Eclectus Parrot	Eclectus roratus
Galah	Eolophus roseicapilla
Gouldian Finch	Erythrura gouldiae
Greater Yellowlegs	Tringa melanoleuca
Green Singing Finch	Serinus mozambicus
Green-backed Twinspot	Mandingoa nitidula
Green-cheeked Parrot	Ara severus
Green-winged Macaw	Ara chloropterus
Green-winged Teal	Anas carolinensis
Hyacinth Macaw	Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus
Lesser Yellowlegs	Tringa flavipes
Little Blue Heron	Egretta caerulea
Marsh Wren	Cistothorus palustris
Northern Harrier	Circus cyaneus
Northern Rough-winged Swallow	Stelgidopteryx serripennis
Pacific Parrotlet	Forpus coelestis
Palm Cockatoo	Probosciger aterrimus
Peach-faced Lovebird	Agapornis roseicollis
Peregrine Falcon	Falco peregrinus
Pied-billed Grebe	Podilymbus podiceps
Pin-tailed Wydah	Vidua macroura
Red-rumped Parrot	Psephotus haematonotus
Red-winged Blackbird	Agelaius phoeniceus
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	Regulus calendula
Salmon-crested Cockatoo	Cacatua moluccensis
Scarlet Macaw	Ara macao
Snowy Egret	Egretta thula
Star Finch	Neochmia ruficauda
White Cockatoo	Cacatua alba
White-bellied Parrot	Pionites leucogaster
White-crowned Parrot	Pionus senilis
Yellow-crowned Amazon	Amazona ochrocephala
Boxelder	Acer negundo
Common Mugwart	Artemesia vulgaris
Creeping Primrose Willow	Ludwigia repens
Goldenrod	Solidago altissima
Pickerel Weed	Pontederia sp.
Purple Loosestrife	Lythrum salicaria
Spatterdock	Nuphar advena
Swamp Milkweed	Asclepias incarnata
Tickseed Sunflower	Bidens aristoa
Wild Rice	Zizania sp.
Northern Brown Snake	Storeria dekayi
Northern Red-bellied Turtle	Pseudemys rubriventris
Red-eared Slider	Trachemys scripta
Snapping Turtle	Chelydra serpentina

Chinese Crawfish

Cambaridae sp.