In January 2023, a juvenile Swainson’s Hawk/Buteo swainsoni, a species normally found on the other side of the Mississippi, showed up on Staten Island. It was soon spotted hanging out at the SIMS recycling center on the Brooklyn side, presumably for the rats. The odd thing, though, is that it seems to have come back…

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First winter Iceland Gull/Larus glaucoides. Presumably the kumlieni subspecies (of three). Rare here, and rarer still to get such close-up looks. With the Usual Suspects, Ring-billed Gulls/Larus delawarensis. Note the whiteness of the Iceland’s wings. Ring-billed, American Herring, and Great Black-back, the standard local gull species, all have black wing-tips, as the passing Ring-billed shows…

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At Brooklyn Bridge Park amid Mallards, Black Duck, and Gadwalls. A female Green-winged Teal. (I couldn’t see the green speculum until I looked at my photos, so I was wondering what this not- Bufflehead not-Ruddy Duck was….) Fintan O’Toole, who has written a fantastic history of modern Ireland, is one of our most astute chroniclers…

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Cooper’s in the ‘hood. A rare sighting (above) while being out and about. More typically lately the bird is on a nearby fire-escape. (So I’m photographing through a dirty window in these shots, the cold being too much to have the window open.) This fire-escape is out of the prevailing wind and facing the morning…

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And then “hatch”-ing the prize open.

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Baked goods edition. With a piece of bread scored on the street, this squirrel raced down the sidewalk, shot up a tree and leaped to the roof deck of this 2.5-story corner house. Then dashed like a Muybridge horse across four parallel roofs, then angled under the one with solar panels on it to the…

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