News stories tagged with "wildlife"

(05/21/12) Every spring, a Department of Environmental Conservation biologist drives along north country highways at dawn or dusk, stopping every so often to pull over and listen. They're listening for the distinctive "peent" of the singing American woodcock, a brown speckled bird a little larger than a songbird with a long, narrow beak for pulling earthworms out of the ground.

The little game bird is under threat New York state, and the survey each year is meant to get a handle on what population trends are in this region. DEC regional spokesman Stephen Litwhiler is the happy host to several of the birds in his backyard in southern Jefferson County. He says the birds' appearance each year is his personal "harbinger of spring."

For this Heard Up North, reporter Joanna Richards donned camouflage and hid behind the birds' favorite tree in Litwhiler's backyard to get a close-up look - and listen. more

(04/26/12) Join Dr. Curt Stager and Martha Foley for a discussion about foxes--their homes, their diets and other fox facts.

(04/20/12) When black bear hunters head back into the woods this fall, they'll face new regulations that require them to document any parts of the animal that they plan to sell.

The new law went into effect this year. It's designed to help state and Federal officials crack down on black bear poaching.

It's still legal for hunters in New York to sell bear parts for use in Asian medicine and cooking, but the trade will be much more closely monitored.

Brian Mann has our story. more

(04/19/12) Martha Foley and Dr. Curt Stager discuss the varieties and habits of American robins. There are half a dozen different kinds, including albinos. How do they arrive so early in the spring? Sometimes it's because they never leave.

(02/14/12) Thousands of citizen scientists across the U.S. and Canada will get out their tally sheets for the 15th annual Great Backyard Bird Count this weekend. The survey begins Friday morning and continues through Presidents' Day.

Biologists at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Audubon are anxiously awaiting the data this year because of the warm winter weather across the country.

Todd Moe talks with Cornell's Pat Leonard about this year's count, and Adirondack bird guide Joan Collins for an update on bird sightings and migration trends in our region.

(01/17/12) Snowy owls from the arctic tundra are showing up in northern states this winter. More than two dozen sightings of the large, stoic owls have been reported from Lake Champlain to Lake Ontario since October.

Todd Moe talks with Lake Placid birder Larry Master, an expert on owls, about Snowy Owls and other owl visitors from further north this time of year.

(01/13/12) State officials are investigating the death of a deer in the town of Thurman in Warren County that appears to have been infected with an uncommon bacteria. The animal was spotted in December by hunters, still alive but suffering from obvious distress. Last week, researchers who conducted a necropsy identified what appeared to be a bacteria infection. more

(01/12/12) Chipmunk, cluckmunk? Chipmunks and many animals have a variety of sounds used to express different things. Martha Foley and Dr. Curt Stager sample the vocabulary used by this common denizen of North Country woods and villages.

(01/10/12) In Watertown, wildlife biologists will be out "crow hazing" tonight. They're trying to scare away the city's huge winter population of the birds. It's estimated there are as many as 30,000 crows roosting in Watertown right now. Nora Flaherty has more. more

(01/05/12) Horns and antlers are more than different variations on animal head gear. Antlers are temporary and contain no actual bone. Horns are for keeps. Martha Foley and Curt Stager discuss pointy-headed creatures.