Backyard and Beyond

Starting out from Brooklyn, an amateur naturalist explores our world.

As John Burroughs said, “The place to observe nature is where you are.”

Raptor Wednesday

On Saturday, two passes through Green-Wood Cemetery on either side of brunch came up zilch on the raptor count, so Sunday I went back in amidst the nuthatches, kinglets, and warblers. Within a ten-minute period, I’d spotted a Sharp-shinned Hawk, two Red-tailed Hawks, a Merlin, and then an American Kestrel: now, that’s more like it!

The Kestrel was munching on a dragonfly, probably a Common Green Darner. And then the Merlin showed up.img_0755You can just see the dragonfly in the enlarged version.

Welcome back Raptor Wednesday…!

mthew

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One response to “Raptor Wednesday”

  1. Raptor Wednesday | Backyard and Beyond

    […] Merlins like to perch and don’t seem to be as jumpy as, say, the Accipiters, who are constantly on the move.This Falco columbarius had just returned to this perch, where I’d earlier seen it, from quite a too-do with several Blue Jays, which were mobbing it in a nearby tree. Green-Wood‘s a good place to see this little falcons this time of year. Fall and Winter in general are the best time to see them locally: here’s some excitement out at Fort Tilden during October of ’15. One final shot. Hard to get enough, right? Especially when you have such relatively leisurely amount of time to observe. This is the bird that soon after appeared next to the nearby American Kestrel eating a Common Green Darner. […]

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