📜 EwA Week Highlights: Barred Owl, Mallard, and a Bonus Manatee

[Mike McGlathery]

EwA Highlights March 2, 2025 Hello everyone,  Thanks for reading the March 2nd EwA highlights. 📸 Kristian observed this barred owl (Strix varia) on Tuesday. While the typical habitat for this bird is mature forest, they also tend to do quite well in suburbs, because prey can be plentiful. With that in mind, the fact that this owl was spotted near Whipple Hill (a forested conservation area located in the suburbs) makes a lot of sense! EwA iNaturalist Record (© Kristian Demary · Winchester, MA · Feb. 25, 2025)  I love this picture of a mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) with a small fish from Kay. Mallards are omnivorous, but typically the large majority of their diet is plant matter, and the animal prey they eat is most often small bugs and crustaceans. In the winter, food in general is scarce, so mallards have to be more resourceful in finding food. I’d say this one has done quite well for itself, although the fact that it’s still carrying the fish around on land might indicate that it needs to do a little problem solving to figure out how to actually eat its catch. EwA iNaturalist Record (© Kay Roth · Woburn, MA · Feb. 28, 2025)  EwA’s most observed species this week was the winter firefly (Ellychnia corrusca). These beetles are a relatively common sight moving around on warmer winter days. The adults spend the winter sheltering in the bark of a tree (often that of Quercus, the oaks). They tend to congregate on individual trees as well - if you’ve seen one winter firefly nestled into the oak bark, it’s likely others are nearby. EwA iNaturalist Record (© Joe MacIndewar · Stoneham, MA · Feb. 22, 2024)  I usually don’t show observations from outside New England, but I have one last bonus observation to share with you all this week. I recently travelled to central Florida, and had the opportunity to visit Blue Springs State Park. When it gets particularly cold in other nearby waterways, Florida manatees (Trichechus manatus latirostris) congregate at this spring because of its warm water. We were lucky on our visit: the previous couple days had indeed been cold, and as a result there were over 500 manatees residing in the tributary housing the spring that day. I had come to the state with the aspiration of seeing a single manatee - I hadn’t dreamed seeing so many in one place! EwA iNaturalist Record (© Michael McGlathery · Volusia co., FL · Feb. 22, 2024)  📊 Thanks to everyone for your great biodiversity records this week, totaling 401 observations of 188 distinct species. If you’re curious about the records from this week that have been validated by the iNat community so far, you can find them » here. 🏆 Running tally: To date, we have recorded 225,305 observations of 12,317 distinct species! Check out our EwA umbrella project, see the details per site/observer, and more » here. 📅 EwA Upcoming Public Events Ewa Field Events » Check the EwA Winter [ Event details and registration » ] Don’t miss some great opportunities to follow the rhythm of the season in our local habitats and in the local wildlife! Space is limited for all our field events. Wildlife ethics is important to us and we seek to avoid putting the pressure on natural habitats which large gatherings unavoidably do. We are asking our audience to register-and-commit (or cancel when you know you can’t come) to avoid no-shows. EwA Fieldwork (and Resources) It’s a great time to join our monitoring programs. Check EwA’s Volunteer Program Calendar 📅  to know when things happen. And if a session is of interest to you, don’t hesitate to reach out to get the rendezvous location. 📅 EwA Sites Map | 🌱 Site Protocols and Guides · Field Rosters · Field Notes » All here! | ℹ️ More about EwA’s Citizen Science Program » Here ❓ Do you have any questions? Don’t be shy. Just email me or reply to this thread.  That’s all for this week—hope you have a good one! -Mike