Raptor Wednesday

I didn’t have to leave the house for these, although of course they’re all too far away. Here’s an American Kestrel perched an avenue away. This is the same antenna that has hosted Red-tailed Hawk, Merlin, and crows (could be American or Fish in these parts); usually it’s festooned with Starlings. Same day, earlier, spotted what was presumably this Kestrel and another at same time. Not so long later, a Peregrine was on patrol near that favored perch atop St. Michael’s.Also the same day. And closer still, barely, on the back end of the Curious Motel. The long tell-tale tail is barely visible through the railing.Cooper’s Hawk. When this bird was in the air, the local Rock Doves swirled around it in a purposeful confusion. That’s a tell: whenever I see a flurry of pigeons, I look for a raptor. I’ve spotted Cooper’s the last three mornings out my windows.

In other raptor news: on Saturday, an adult Bald Eagle flew overhead while I was in Green-Wood. This was only the second time I’ve seen a Bald above Brooklyn (as opposed to over the harbor, the Hudson, & Staten Island). Half an hour before that, a Peregrine had passed overhead, fairly low: I thought it might try for the Pied-billed Grebe, but that bird was not leaving the water. A week previously, I saw a Red-shouldered Hawk wheel over the park next door, a first from my windows.

“To date, Trump has picked an Attorney General who doesn’t believe in the Voting Rights Act; a Secretary of Heath and Human Services who doesn’t believe in government-provided health insurance; a Treasury Secretary who wants to “strip back” the Dodd-Frank Act, designed to prevent another bank meltdown; a Secretary of Education who’s against public schools; and, now, a Secretary of Housing and Urban Development who doesn’t believe in the Fair Housing Act. Perhaps I’m old-fashioned, but I don’t think the Senate should confirm people who are on record as being against the laws they have a constitutional duty to implement.” – Robert Reich