October 2015
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Halloween!
Once upon a morning clearly, while I pondered light and shadow…. Cue Gothick pile, hemlock reaching into the frame, and, atop the parrot-haunted spire, a lone Raven loudly proclaiming its freakin’ raven-ness. (Another birder photographed three Ravens up there about a month ago. I happened to catch this more recently, but only with my phone…
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Sharpie on the Prowl
A Sharp-shinned Hawk (Accipiter striatus), eyeballing everything that moves above, before, behind, below. Waves of song-birds were stirred up by this slim raptor, the smallest hawk species in North America. This may have been the same bird I saw on three more separate encounters that day, racing after prey.Sharpies, as they are affectionately known, are…
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Winter Wren
The day began with a tweet from the City Birder of a photo of a dead Winter Wren (Troglodytes hiemalis) killed by a cat in Green-Wood. So I was pleased several hours later to see two live specimens. They were living up to their genus name, Troglodytes, going into the nooks and crannies of this…
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Groundcoverhogs
I was surprised to see one of the best birding spots in Green-Wood Cemetery shaved down to the bone recently. This was an impenetrable thicket along the flank of the hill overlooking the Sylvan Water, perfect for songbirds and woodchuck. Two woodchuck dens are exposed here now, but then most of the cemetery’s dens are…
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Autumnal Colors
Just a quick reminder that you don’t actually need to leave New York City to see some spectacular colors. Not that there’s anything in the least wrong with heading north or wherever to leaf peep, but sometimes it doesn’t fit your schedule or budget. These are all from Prospect or Green-Wood.
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Woodcock Sunday
In the fall, it’s not unheard of to flush an American Woodcock while walking in Green-Wood. They explode out of the leaf litter — the first time it happened to me, I was unknowingly close to the bird, so I was perhaps more startled than it was. Their plumage corresponds wonderfully to leaf litter. They…
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Old Man Willow And Co.
At some point in its illustrious career, this Weeping Willow lost a bifurcating trunk, leaving a near horizontal gape about four feet up the bole. The slowly rotting remains inside there provided a seedbed for not one, not two, but three saplings: cherry, maple, and mulberry. This is a four-tree tree, which is the most…
Backyard and Beyond 