Animals of the park
I spoke with Kieran Lindsey on Monday, June 21st, 2021 over zoom about the animals in Lafayette Park. I was surprised by the amount of biodiversity present in the park. Some of the wildlife she mentioned were:
mute swans
bunnies
squirrels
turtles
fish
geese
ducks
birds
owls
chipmunks
opossums
flying squirrels
foxes
coyotes
raccoons
lizards
snakes
frogs
squirrels
turtles
fish
geese
ducks
birds
owls
chipmunks
opossums
flying squirrels
foxes
coyotes
raccoons
lizards
snakes
frogs
I was with my mother in the park on July 26th, 2021 and we saw an owl. According to Kieran's blog, the owls in the park are great horned owls. GHOs are silent predators as their feathers have an "irregular edge" (Lindsey, n.d.). This gives the owls an advantage as they can pursue their prey without being heard.
Kieran stated that she has seen coyote scat in the park. I was surprised to hear this as Lafayette Park is in an urban area and I think about coyotes as being in rural areas.
Below are some photographs of wildlife in Lafayette Park.
Photos by Alicia von Stamwitz
Lindsey, K. (n.d.). Silent flight. Next-Door Nature. https://nextdoornature.org/2020/12/08/silent-flight/
Cool! On 7/21/21 at 3:15pm I saw a kettle of Cooper's Hawks (5 hawks) in the lower branches of a white pine tree near the northeast entrance of the park. I recorded the call of one of the females, I think it was (females are 33% larger on average than males). "It is estimated that Cooper's hawks have 42 different calls that are made by females, 22 by males, and 14 by the juveniles." https://kidadl.com/animal-facts/coopers-hawk-facts
ReplyDeleteWow that is a lot of different calls. How did you find out they are Cooper's Hawks?
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