Category Archives: Babies and Juveniles

Meet Pirate

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Wednesday, May 9, 2018,

I go to a lot of parks and Frank Melville Memorial Park in Setauket is one of my favorites. Frank Melville has a lot going for it, from its abundance of animal life to its scenic views and its well-groomed trails. This is all good stuff, but Frank Melville Park has one other big draw for me: Frank Melville Park has dogs.

Meet Pirate. These are stately pics of Pirate but, in all honesty, Pirate is not quite stately. Not yet at any rate. I think he’ll get there. Pirate is a four month old Boxer and he is as friendly as you can expect a puppy to be. These photos fail to capture his youthful exuberance or his genuine friendliness. I believe they were taken while his attention was taken away by another passing dog, because Pirate likes meeting other dogs as much as he likes meeting photographers. Pirate is one lovable dog. I hope you get the chance to meet him for yourself. JK

JK


Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

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Sunday, December 24, 2017,

This is a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, my first one ever. It is probably an immature male and not just because most women I know are always telling me that men are immature. Or maybe they just mean me. I’m not sure. Anyways, back to the bird. I spotted a pair of these working some trees about a month ago at the Morton Wildlife Refuge. They were obviously woodpeckers of some sort but even from a distance I could see they weren’t Downy Woodpeckers, which are the woodpeckers I see most often. When I got home, I grabbed my Sibley’s Guide and compared my pics to the illustrations in Mr. Sibley’s excellent book. I thought I might have a Sapsucker but I very rarely trust myself, especially when it comes to new (to me) birds. So I emailed my friend Patrice from the Four Harbors Audubon Society and she confirmed my guess. I had finally captured the mythical Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. I looked to the skies for falling confetti or blaring trumpets but, sigh, there was nothing of the sort. I did, however, have a new bird under my belt. JK

First Snow

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Saturday, December 9, 2017,

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We had our first real snowfall today. Nothing major. I think a total of five to seven inches are expected when the weather clears tomorrow morning. I was on a bird walk at Avalon Park and Preserve this morning when the snow began to kick in.

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The bird walk was one of Four Harbors Audubon’s regularly scheduled walks. We walk at Avalon and Frank Melville Memorial Park every second Saturday of each month. We had a very small gathering at Avalon, only four of us altogether. I guess the forecast scared some of our regular walkers off. I guess the snow isn’t for everybody.

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As it turned out, it wasn’t a very big day for bird watching anyway. We saw a few but no great numbers of anything. However, we did come across a small herd of five deer. Three does and two fawns. It was the first snow of the season for us, but for those two fawns it was their first snow ever. They didn’t seem very impressed but the snow was really just beginning when I took these photos.

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