December 2018
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Red What?
The red head of the Red-bellied Woodpecker is a bold flag in winter. But it’s not the “Red-headed Woodpecker” because that name goes to another species, which has an entirely red head as an adult, not just this mohawk-like swath of color. This is a male, the color going from the nape to the bill.…
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Raptor Wednesday: Justice Edition
For the last two weeks I’ve been serving on a jury in a murder trial. This was the view from the jury room: downtown Brooklyn, with the dwarfed tower of Borough Hall just visible to the left of the long Supreme Court building in the foreground. The row of buildings from the center to the…
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Chickadee-dee-dee
An energetic Black-capped Chickadee barely pausing in action recently.Poecile atricapillus.One Christmas Bird Count a few years back, not a single one was sighted in Brooklyn. These birds are so familiar, especially at bird feeders, that their absence was disconcerting. Thirty-four were counted at this year’s Brooklyn (Kings Co.) CBC. (This one was, however, spotted in…
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The Big Book of Eagles
But let’s start… small: the Pygmy Eagle weights about the same as a pigeon. Whaa-ut? Hieraaetus weiskei is found on New Guinea and some of the surrounding islands. Evolutionary pressures on islands can sometimes result in rather small animals. Interestingly, this species is said to be one of the closest living relatives of the largest…
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Hunkering Down With Ardea herodias
November 25th.December 8th.December 9th. You will notice that the water is iced over in the last picture, making fishing problematic. With fish and frogs out of the picture, what is this young Great Blue Heron eating? Whatever it can catch, presumably, including birds and small mammals. I wonder if it’s policing the Dell Water for…
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Larix Snack
Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata) in a larch (Larix) scarfing up… something. It looked like popcorn. It was too big for a seed from the cones, which wouldn’t be white anyway. And besides, the things were also being gleaned from the limbs. I guess they was some kind of larvae. Something that thought they could while…
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Date Plum
Diospyros lotus is in the ebony family of plants. The bark is very similar to its genus mate, Diospyros virginiana, the American persimmon. As are the calyces. The subject of today’s post is the date plum or Caucasian persimmon, which is native to a swath of territory from Spain to southwest Asia. Diospyros, the genus…
Backyard and Beyond 