Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy

Our Monarchs from here in Loudoun have arrived in Mexico and are in their winter slumber. PBS put together a terrific film on the migration:

Follow the 2,000-mile migration of monarchs to a sanctuary in the highlands of Mexico. Airs tomorrow night – November 30, 2011 on PBS

Program Description

Orange-and-black wings fill the sky as NOVA charts one of nature’s most remarkable phenomena: the epic migration of monarch butterflies across North America. To capture a butterfly’s point of view, NOVA’s filmmakers used a helicopter, ultralight, and hot-air balloon for aerial views along the transcontinental route. This wondrous annual migration, which scientists are just beginning to fathom, is an endangered phenomenon that could dwindle to insignificance if the giant firs that the butterflies cling to during the winter disappear.

You can watch a preview of the film here – it’s fantastic: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/nature/journey-butterflies.html

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFoSpaNqqeQ&feature=player_embedded

This is the last in the Inside Birding series that Cornell has produced so far.  You can tell a lot about a bird from where they live

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmPXtsJeu5M

Join us next Saturday at the Blue Ridge Center for Environmental Stewardship for some nice birding! All experience levels are welcome.  Walks start at 8am and wrap up by about 11:00 or so. Details can be found on our programs page for May.

Here’s the third Inside Birding video by Cornell Lab of Ornithology.  This one is really cool – be a birding sleuth!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owZ6bonrOjA

Here’s the second installment of Inside Birding by Cornell Lab of Ornithology. In this video they give some great tips on how to get that impression of what bird it is so you can identify it.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rT7he15Js0

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology has created a great series of birding videos called Inside Birding. Here’s the first of their series: Size and Shape

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ridajl8uic0

I wish I could embed this video on the blog but it’s not that kind of link so….. here’s the website:

http://www.ted.com/talks/louie_schwartzberg_the_hidden_beauty_of_pollination.html

This is an exquisite 7-minute clip on so much more than pollination. The presenter, Louie Schwartzberg, asks the question, “What motivates the pollinators?”  Chip Taylor of Monarch Watch offered the explaination, “Nothing lasts forever, everything eventually wears out.” This is a question about life itself and the imagery of the film clip is a wonderful journey in that.

One commenter posted, “I am saddened to realize that most of the pollinators in these clips are seriously threatened – The honey bees by hive collapse syndrome, the bats by a fungus, the butterflies by habitat loss.”  I think that’s a pretty key obersvation.

Found this video on Eastern Box Turtles that I thought you might enjoy too:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFxABr_WSYc

Over the next few months, box turtles will be on the move. Keep an eye out for them in and along roads and move them to safety (in the direction they were moving) so they don’t get killed.

It’s important not to collect them or remove them from their home range because they are very faithful to the acres in which they grew up. 

You can learn more about box turtles by listening to our podcast too: Eastern Box Turtles.

Here’s a short video telling about our Virginia Opossum:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNtlMfrhbE4&feature=channel

Here’s a great video done by students at Loudoun Valley High School.  We can all make things better!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AKMBzPli7w