On Thursday, the first snowfall of the winter caught the city off-guard. Unprotected by congestion pricing, Manhattan, flooded with prowling car service vehicles, came to a traffic standstill. In the boroughs, lots of limbs were sheared off trees from the wet heavy snow and wind. 
The pictures above are from Wednesday. The male American Kestrel was keeping an eye on the sky. If you’ve followed our #BrooklynKestrels adventures, you will recognize this knob of a perch. It’s an upright arm of a London Plane tree right across the street from the #ViewFromTheMoraine, a.k.a our apartment.
This branch came down in Thursday’s storm. I noticed that it was missing Saturday. The branch, which was dead, is now hanging upside down further down in the canopy. I thought, oh, no, it’s the end of an era! You couldn’t have asked for a better view, well, ok, except for the fire-escape or a lamp post. 
As I was tweeting the news out to a waiting world of kestrel fans, I heard a kestrel calling. Yes, there he was in the tree across the street, just using another part of it to perch on. 
Those smokestacks in the distance, by the way, are where two Peregrines have been seen, either one at a time or in a pair, for several week now.
Backyard and Beyond 
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