birding
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Kestrel Food
What is this? He thought it was edible.American Kestrels eat birds, mammals, reptiles, and insects. Saw a picture recently of a male working on a Garter Snake. Some years ago, I became aware of Fence Lizards in the city because of a picture making the rounds of a kestrel flying to a nest with one…
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Keeping Up With The Kestrels
…is exhausting! The distinctive calling of the birds brings us to the windows throughout the day.They seem to be very effective hunters. In the photo above, the male is gripping a dead sparrow. You can just see the sparrow’s little toes. As he usually does, he proceeded to eat the sparrow’s head. Then he plucked…
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The Raid
I heard the raven’s wings. The bird flew right overhead, close enough for me to hear the work of those great wings.This Common Raven returned to this duck nest six times, taking five eggs.The bird wasn’t gone very long after each foray. Presumably the eggs were eaten or cached nearby. The fifth time, the bird…
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Raptor Wednesday
I was returning home after several hours of birding. Right across the street from my apartment, a Red-tailed Hawk suddenly landed on top of a parked car. At the edge of the park, a shrub full of House Sparrows and a bush with a Grey Squirrel reverberated with chattered alarms. The big buteo launched into…
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Corvus corax
You usually hear them before you see them. Common Ravens are loud, croaking, talkative, barky.The pair circled around the Sylvan Water recently, skimming down low over the water and stirring up the geese. It was a spectacular display.And it was quite a scene there at the Sylvan. At least seven Phoebes and two Northern Rough-winged…
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Some Kestrel Notes
I’ve previously stated that, like raptors in general, American Kestrels have sexual dimorphism: the female is larger. But the difference is slight for these small falcons, and the literature says that there can be some overlap. The male of a pair can sometimes be larger. Over the last three months, the #BrooklynKestrels have sometimes appeared…
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Eating
Buds.Muffin wrapper tidbits?Pineapple? It was hard as a brick whatever it was, but this didn’t stop several gulls from fighting over it. Actually, I’m not sure it was at all edible. I wonder if this was a small echo of our great ocean disaster: floating plastic picks up dimethyl sulfide and so smells like…
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Snowbirds
After our last snowfall, we noticed something for the first time.Where, after all, are birds that normally forage on the ground going to go when the snow covers everything?These Juncoes were feeding on a tree-limb garden.
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Raptor Wednesday
An omnibus of distant Peregrines.Downtown Brooklyn. Foley Square/Municipal Building/Police Plaza.55 Water Street. Pairs in downtown Brooklyn, Foley Square, 55 Water Street, and the Industry City smokestack. The latter are no longer seen with any regularity, presumably because they are now nesting like the 55s.
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More Songs of Spring
House Finch (Haemorhous mexicanus). You can’t hear anything (so get yourself outside), but look at that throat moving! Also note that he has a bit of breaking bloom in his mouth: can sing with his beak full. Fox Sparrow (Passerella iliaca) singing in a cherry. Except when I took pictures…The built-in microphone is a paltry…
Backyard and Beyond 