April 2016
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Eastern Phoebe
One of spring’s earliest arrivals, Sayornis phoebe have been around for a few weeks already. They generally perch over meadows and water bodies, making loopy forays into the air to hunt for insects. Perched, they wag their tails as if they know something about the nutritional value of insects. Sometimes you may be graced with them saying their name, which…
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Fabulous
Ohara Donshu – Blind Men Appraising an Elephant, early 19th century. Ink and colors on paper, Overall: 92 x 46 1/2 in. (233.7 x 118.1 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Asian Art Council, Mr. and Mrs. Willard G. Clark, Georgia and Michael de Havenon, Mr. and Mrs. Greg Fitz-Gerald, Dr. and Mrs. George Liberman,…
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Flickermania
Spring and fall, migration usually brings us a few days with large numbers of Northern Flickers (Colaptes auratus) passing through. This is the only woodpecker around here you will regularly see foraging on the ground. You can scare up a dozen here, a dozen there, and see them flying hither and yon through Brooklyn’s green…
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Snipers
It’s that time of year when you can not be sure what will drop out of the sky. I mean this quite literally, because it’s migration season and birds of many feathers are streaming northward, in our case along the Atlantic flyway. Yesterday, for instance, we spotted a Wilson’s Snipe in Green-Wood Cemetery on a…
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Bathing Hawk
Bathing is vital for feather maintenance.But being in the water out in the open can make you fairly vulnerable if you’re not a buoyant, oily-feathered waterfowl. This small Accipiter found a weeping something or other arching over the water use as a shower curtain.The bird stood in the water for quite a while and…
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And another leaf…
…is unfurled.Meanwhile, a crab apple (Malus) begins to bloom.Less delicately, the thumb-sized bud of a Horse-chestut (Aesculus hippocastanum) still contains its upright chandelier of flowers and leaves.A young seed-ball of the London Plain (Platanus × acerifolia) blown off in Sunday’s high wind and mushed up on contact with the sidewalk. This was a little under…
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Boat-tailed Grackle
The Common Grackle (Quiscalus quiscula) is no stranger in our midst, but you really need to be along the coast to spot a Boat-tailed Grackle (Quiscalus major). Marine Park had a few of them foraging in the reed stubble recently. Here’s one of these spectacular “blackbirds.” They are bigger than the Commons, with longer tails…
Backyard and Beyond 