I took this photo at the Wild Center in Tupper Lake, near the center of the Adirondacks. This natural history museum is surrounded by an 81 acre trail-filled campus and is home to approximately 50 species of live animals. Many of these animals are in their natural habitats, but unfortunately this grey horn owl had an injured wing and was in recovery. This photo displays the dedication and the love for animals of the employees at the Wild Center. The Wild Center features live animal exhibits of river otters, birds, fish and amphibians that I highly recommend seeing

On Wednesday April 8th Mark Manske brought some of his Adirondack Raptors to our Natural World class at St. Lawrence University. One of which was Gunderson the Red-Tailed Hawk. Although the Red-Tailed Hawk is prominent all over North America, their presence in the Adirondacks is crucial to the intricate food webs that they help balance as one of many carnivorous predators. Therefore their protection is incredibly important to the Adirondack ecosystem's as a whole. The Hawks can also be used as hunting companions in falconry, like Gunderson.

video of an eagle feasting on a deer carcass and coyote that was very leery to approach

Spotted in Tupper Lake this morning. Happy 4th everyone!

While running along the Sandbanks trail in late afternoon, my friend spotted a fuzzy football-sized animal perched on top of a log. After a quick double take, he realized it was a fledgling great horned owl. It obviously couldn't fly, but puffed its chest up defensively and made clicking noises to make sure we didn't get any closer. After then I returned on my bike to find the owl in the exact same spot, looking vulnerable in the fading light. I called Adirondack Raptors to determine whether this was normal behavior for a young great horned owl.

This is a close up photo I took on February 17th, 2014 at the Wild Center in Tupper Lake, NY of a Northern Saw-Whet Owl.

Habitat Description: This owl was in captivity because it suffered damage to one of its wings and it made it unsuitable to be able to properly hunt in the wild and survive. The owl is in captivity at the Wild Center and was in a cage.

A scraggly, young red tailed hawk was spotted just off of Route 56 on a telephone pole scouting for prey

A broad winged hawk, most likely a male, was soaring over the trees just off in the wood by our house. It was sounding a characteristic territorial call, a high pitched whistle. This is often done when a threatening species strays too close, such as a red tailed hawk. This also indicates that there is nest somewhere in the woods, which I'm hoping to venture out and find, hopefully without disturbing the hawks. Broad winged hawks are easily identified by their namesake broad wings and black and white tail banding.

Our Cub Scouts enjoyed a mid-morning hike on a beautiful day. It threatened rain all morning so the group of brave souls who attended was smaller than usual. Bird watching was the goal, but we spent more time watching the cows (who were quite friendly coming right up to the fence I assume looking for food) and investigating the numerous mushrooms and the one random skull we found. We practiced our leave no trace guidelines and took only pictures and left only footprints. Very deep ones thanks to the mud.