Turtleback Farm

This is one of the reasons we target balloon string, fishing line, and twine during marine debris clean ups before the arrival of osprey and nest building - and throughout the nesting season. So glad to hear the osprey is okay.

Yellow flag iris is an invasive perennial that displaces native plants -- especially along lake and pond shorelines -- disrupting the aquatic food chain http...s://bit.ly/2SjRoqa. A great, native alternative for a marshy or wet area is blue flag iris. This adaptable plant has bright, violet-blue flowers with a yellow base that attract helpful pollinators like bees. #iConservePA #PANativePlants

Your woods may look strong and indestructible, but they might not be growing the next generation of trees. Apply for funding through New York’s Regenerate New Y...ork Program and grow tomorrow’s forests, today! The Regenerate New York Forestry Cost Share Program provides landowners who own 10-1,000 acres with money to improve your forest. Your forest can benefit from simple management strategies to promote young trees in the face of stressors like deer, forest pests, invasive species, and even climate change. To find out more about how Regenerate New York can help keep your forest healthy, visit https://www.dec.ny.gov/lands/119950.html Photo Credit: Josh Birnbaum NASF

Ruby-throated Hummingbird in nest.

Eastern Box Turtles are active! Please keep an eye out for them on roadways and while mowing. If you see one in the road, please help it cross in the direction it was headed, Avoid mowing woodland edges until the afternoon, since they come out to bask in the morning. Thank you!

Here is a link to a great story map on the differences between native and exotic bittersweets. https://storymaps.arcgis.com//8b1618fae68044ad8ab36d7a64ec

Sea Turtle Online Lecture Friday PM & Cold Stun Workshop Saturday AM!

Want to know more about the fate of the Peconic Bay Scallop? Sign up for North Fork Audubon Society and East End Seaport Museum’s online Zoom lecture with Dr. Stephen Tettelbach on Friday November 13th at 7:00 pm. Registration: NFASprograms@ gmail. com https://www.newsday.com//scallop-peconic-die-off-peconic-b

#leavetheleaves

Recent Mountain Lion Encounter Unpacked. Video: Kyle Burgess

What are your thoughts on the expansion of the Eastern Coyote to Eastern Long Island? We want to know!

Go check out the night sky for shooting stars tonight! (this whole month!)

Marine Meadows Workshop in Southold! Help our eel grass beds by weaving eel grass shoots into burlap to be planted in Peconic Bay! Monday October 12th, 10:00 am - 12:00 noon. Free, but must register. http://ccesuffolk.org/even//10/03/marine-meadows-workshops

read the entire post, pretty cool to know! ...cute little fella to boot!

Thousands of land and aquatic turtles are on the move this time of year, many across roads, in their attempt to find a spot to hibernate:

Did you or your neighbor have a boom in zucchini or squash production this summer? It is likely made possible by a wild bee. Bumble bees and squash bees (shown ...here) are important pollinators of these plants. Squash bees are ground-nesting solitary bees and often nest in the soil around the squash plants they visit. Thank a bee today by protecting them from pesticides, providing nesting habitat, and planting flowers that are native to your region! Video: Watch this squash bee move from flower to flower. Alina Harris (Xerces Society)

The Long Island Coyote Study Group - comprised of representatives from Seatuck, Hofstra, Wild Dog Foundation, Greentree Foundation, Mianus Gorge Preserve, Ameri...can Museum of Natural History, NYSDEC, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Kingsborough Community College and Fordham University has identified several coyote sites on Long Island and Fishers Island. Given that coyotes have never lived on Long Island, we hope to learn important insights into their use of the Long Island landscape and their impacts on our ecological systems. We need your help. The American Museum of Natural History has generously offered to do the laboratory analyses of the coyote scats we collect as long as we can raise $6,000 for their lab materials. We are well on our way to meeting the goal with $1,500 (25% of the target goal) already committed by LINO and Seatuck. We are reaching out to our colleagues in the Long Island conservation community for help in raising the money for the project. Please help us meet our goal no contribution is too small. click here for the donation page. https://www.seatuck.org/index.php We will be collecting coyote scats throughout the year for analyses to determine: Diet (and potential seasonal changes in diet); The number of individual coyotes at each site; The relatedness of coyotes at each site to the Bronx and Fishers Island populations (the latter will enable us to test the hypothesis that the Fishers Island - Great Gull Island - Plum Island archipelago is a conduit for recruitment of coyotes to eastern Long Island). Many thanks and best wishes to everyone, Mike Bottini Below: One of two Eastern Coyotes photographed at a Nassau County site in August. (Stephane Perreault photo)

My last post about the funding appeal for the Long Island Coyote Study has generated a lot of interest and questions about this interesting and extremely adapta...ble animal. Here is a link to a presentation on the coyote by Chris Nagy of the Gotham Coyote Project. Chris is also very involved in our L.I. Coyote Study Group. The arrival of the coyote in the northeast from the west is a fascinating biological detective story involving major habitat changes in the east (clearing forests), persecuting the wolf and leaving a major ecological niche empty in the east, and interbreeding among wolves in eastern Canada, coyotes and domestic dogs such that the "Eastern Coyote" is being considered by some biologists to be a unique species whose genetic make up is over 60% coyote, as much as 25% wolf and up to 17% domestic dog. Great story...learn more here: See more