Connor Vara

06/14/2021

Weasels have to be one of my favorite groups of mammals for many reasons but don’t let their cute, innocent demeanor fool you.
This was my first time ever seeing an Ermine (the smallest species amongst the weasels) and it was an amazing encounter shared with !
This Ermine was dragging this snowshoe hare in hopes of staching it or bringing it to a den site and eventually got it to where it needed to go. The fact the hare was at least double its size was impressive to watch and admire the determination it had.

*For size reference, Ermine are almost the same size as a domesticated ferret/slightly smaller and thinner. The cheek/head of the snowshoe hare is in the Ermine’s mouth with the rest of the hare’s body wrapped around the Ermine’s body. Truly an amazing moment!

11/11/2020

I haven’t seen too many Common Redpolls so it was awesome to be able to find a flock on the park a couple days ago! Yesterday there were about 40 redpolls in the same area feeding and vocalizing. This is a northern species of finch and some years migrate further south in winter in search of food resources like Birch catkins. Currently this species and several other finch species are migrating much further south than they usually do for their winter migration so keep an eye and ear out!

02/02/2020

Canada jays are very intriguing to look at as well as their unique behaviors they exhibit while in a little flock and tend to get close to humans to investigate what they are and where’s the food!

01/17/2020

First Snowy owl sighting of the winter so far for myself. This winter has been very warm so far but these upcoming cold fronts and cold weather may bring some down within the next several days to weeks. This was taken several days ago in the Rochester area while birding. The owl didn’t mind our presence while we respected his/her space and we continued birding overlooking the piers and lake water!

01/11/2020

These short eared owls are absolutely breath taking to watch hunt and call to one another while flying very fast and close to the ground! Even though it was a little after sunset, I managed to have enough light for a semi decent photo!

01/10/2020

Female northern harrier flying with her lunch back to a post to consume!

01/10/2020

Female northern harrier carrying her meal back to a post to consume!

01/09/2020

Red tailed hawk taking off after eating a small rodent. Its meal is still in the talons but not really seen in this photo!

11/09/2019

10/23/2019

I had the amazing experience of seeing and photographing this amazing bird during my waterbird monitoring yesterday! This is the first county record and first state record for Pennsylvania of the federally listed Snail Kite! There is a small population in southern Florida and are non-migratory and rarely leave Florida making this an extremely rare sighting. They feed primarily on apple snails with their adapted long, curved bill to get inside these large snails! It has yet to be found again after my sighting yesterday at 4:10pm and I wish the best of luck to this bird and hope it finds another food source soon. I’m still dumbfounded as well as all the other birders that came out yesterday after I found it! I’m very lucky to have been at the right place at the right time!! I don’t know if Lake Erie compares to Lake Okeechobee but I’d rather be down there right now and hope this snail kite returns back south!

03/07/2019

White-winged scoters are just gorgeous. Scorers tend to be in deeper water so it’s nice to see them very up close and at the edge of the marina where there are between 1000-2000 ducks in a small opening in the ice everyday I go and count. I’m currently at Presque Isle State Park counting and monitoring waterbirds for the first year for the Erie Bird Observatory.