A Trumpeter Swan/Cygnus buccinator has shown up in the East River, hard by the Williamsburg coast. Typically found further north and west, this is the largest waterfowl in North America. I’d never seen one before. Here with Mute Swan and Canada Geese. Here seeing off a Ring-billed Gull who was going for the mostly sinking…

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What have we here? A klatsch of ducks.

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Blue Jays uncommonly interested in an old Bald-faced Hornet nest.

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Recent Cooper’s Hawk sightings. Above: Sunset Park. The Battery, at the southern tip of Manhattan. Pier 4, Brooklyn Army Terminal. Same Pier 4 bird chased some Fish Crows off this paddle wheel party boat. Sunset Park again, from my window. (This is a regular perch for this adult.) Bush Terminal Park. The following is this…

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Or maybe a slot machine? Three ducks, all winners: Common Merganser (not common here), Red-breasted Merganser, and Wood Duck on Sylvan Water (and ice). Merganser size-comparison. The last Common Merganser I saw in Green-Wood (which was also the first I saw there) was in February 2025.

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On January 30th, I heard about and then saw a dead Canada Goose on the Sylvan Water ice. I passed by several times over the next week wondering if all this frozen meat was going to go to waste in this hard winter. Then on February 9th I saw that somebody had gotten to it.…

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A couple of Fish Crows were poking around this large plastic bag on a bench on Pier 4. There was clearly something inside, but they were having difficulty getting inside, mostly because they were on the wrong end of things. If this isn’t a request for help, I don’t know what is. (I was on…

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