Which hawk is that? Ocean State Bird Club workshop says behavior may hold key
By     |    Dec 21, 2014
Posted in: Born to be Wild Nature Center, National Audubon Society, Natural Science, Ocean State Bird Club, Outdoor writing, Rhode Island DEM, RINHS, The Nature Conservancy, The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Eastern North America, Trustom Pond National Wildlife Refuge, Uncategorized, Wildlife Rehabilitators of Rhode Island, WRARI     |    No Comments

Which hawk is that? Ocean State Bird Club workshop says behavior may hold key

At 65 mph, the car is zipping too quickly down route 95 to observe much, and overcast skies obscure most color. The car passes beneath a light pole. At the top, a bird roughly the size and shape of a football perches, eyes fixed on the grass below. There’s a black line, a “belly band”, across its middle. Nearby is an open patch of grass. Is it a pigeon? A […]

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REMOVING DAMS TO RESTORE NATURE
By     |    Dec 16, 2014
Posted in: Dam removal, land trust, Natural Science, Rhode Island DEM, RINHS, The Nature Conservancy, US Fish and Wildlife, USFW, Westerly, White Rock Dam, Wood Pawcatuck Watershed Association, WPWA     |    No Comments

REMOVING DAMS TO RESTORE NATURE

It seemed like the right move at the time. Big factories like textile mills in the 18th and 19th centuries needed power, and when there was no such thing as electricity, there was one major source: water. Use the power at hand to make a factory generate products. Build a factory by a river. Dam the river, turn it, shape it, bend it to the needs and turn that enormous […]

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Recycling Tom
By     |    Nov 27, 2014
Posted in: Uncategorized     |    No Comments

Recycling Tom

  (Photo: http://naturallycuriouswithmaryholland.wordpress.com/2014/11/27/wattles-caruncles-snoods/) I don’t know how that turkey ended up dead on the side of the highway. It’s possible that his tiny mind was occupied with the pursuit of a female. (Human males are prone to similar, sometimes fatal distractions, of course, but that’s another story.) Perhaps he was particularly despondent and, lacking easy access to a nearby bridge, leapt out in front of a tandem trailer. Or perhaps, […]

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Farming Filtration in RI Waters
By     |    Nov 18, 2014
Posted in: Uncategorized     |    3 Comments

Farming Filtration in RI Waters

  Do oysters cause disease? Or, can oysters be the magic bullet that cleans up polluted waters? Which is better for fish habitat: an oyster bed, or one of eel grass? Dr. Robert Rheault, Executive Director of the East Coast Shellfish Growers Association (ecsga.org), discussed those questions in conjunction with the showing of the film “Shell Shocked: saving oysters to save ourselves” at URI recently. The event was sponsored by […]

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Symmetry and Artistry: RI Audubon Hosts Annual Bird and Wildlife Carving Exposition
By     |    Nov 10, 2014
Posted in: Uncategorized     |    No Comments

Symmetry and Artistry: RI Audubon Hosts Annual Bird and Wildlife Carving Exposition

  Note: SaNfaP is on Facebook! Go to facebook.com/scienceandnatureforapie and click on “Follow” to receive pictures, facts, and more about the natural world. Then suggest that your friends do the same. They’ll thank you.  -HM “I take everything away that isn’t a bird, and what’s left is a bird.” Hmmm… if that instruction on bird carving sounds a bit too simple to be true, that’s because it is. And champion […]

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What Lies Beneath: URI Surveys Rhode Island Waters
By     |    Nov 1, 2014
Posted in: BioBlitz, Blue Crab, Natural Science, Outdoor writing, Uncategorized, URI, URI Graduate School of Oceanography, US Fish and Wildlife, USFW     |    2 Comments

What Lies Beneath: URI Surveys Rhode Island Waters

  Note: SaNfaP is on Facebook! Go to facebook.com/scienceandnatureforapie and click on “Follow” to receive pictures, facts, and more about the natural world. Then suggest that your friends do the same. They’ll thank you.  -HM It takes Captain Tom Puckett a moment to decide on the most unusual fish he’s brought aboard the URI research vessel Cap’n Bert. Tall, lanky, and sporting curly gray hair, Puckett has been responsible for […]

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Hatching a New Group: Ocean State Bird Club
By     |    Sep 16, 2014
Posted in: Caterpillars of Eastern North America, land trust, National Audubon Society, Natural Science, Ocean State Bird Club, Outdoor writing, RINHS, Steere Hill Land Trust, Uncategorized     |    5 Comments

Hatching a New Group: Ocean State Bird Club

It’s dusk. A dirt parking lot (well, more like a clearing of dirt) retains a few cars, and further back there is a small circle of people sporting binoculars. They wear the full palette of the bird watcher’s color wheel: khaki, tattered khaki, dirty khaki, spanking new khaki, and new khaki stressed to look old. (We are nothing if not consistent.) A bearded young man in the circle speaks to […]

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Turtles from the Dust: Endangered Terrapins in Rhode Island
By     |    Sep 7, 2014
Posted in: diamondback terrapin, land trust, Natural Science, Outdoor writing, Rhode Island DEM, RINHS, turtles, URI, US Fish and Wildlife, USFW, Writing     |    No Comments

Turtles from the Dust: Endangered Terrapins in Rhode Island

The sand is fine grained and the sun is hot. Hundred Acre Cove in Barrington is just a few hundred yards away, but at the moment, there isn’t a shred of the cool breezes usually associated with being by the water. There are only scrub pines, weedy grasses, and dust. Lots of dust. Charlotte Sornborger carries a basket containing an empty green and white striped Newport Creamery plastic tub. She […]

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Diamonds in the Surf
By     |    Aug 15, 2014
Posted in: Uncategorized, URI, URI Graduate School of Oceanography     |    No Comments

Diamonds in the Surf

Note: “Science and Nature for a Pie” is now on Facebook! Visit www.facebook.com/scienceandnatureforapie and “like” the page for ongoing discussions, photos, and factoids! Looking at them was like seeing diamonds scattered in the shoreline. They were translucent, and sparkled brilliantly in the wet sand as the sun caught them. There were thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, running the entire 1.5-mile length of Napatree Point Conservation Area. Shimmering, sparkling, a king’s […]

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An Antenna on Napatree? What is this neighborhood coming to?
By     |    Aug 3, 2014
Posted in: Uncategorized     |    No Comments

An Antenna on Napatree? What is this neighborhood coming to?

Note: “Science and Nature for a Pie” is now on Facebook! Visit www.facebook.com/scienceandnatureforapie and “like” the page for ongoing discussions, photos, and factoids! Taylor Swift’s cell phone tower? Some new spying gadgetry from the NSA? Wrong on both counts. Then why on earth is a 40-foot tall antenna rising from the dunes at Napatree Point Conservation Area in Westerly, RI? Fear not. This is an instrument being used by doctoral […]

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