March 2019
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Red-ish
Red-bellied Woodpecker. Another regular winter sight, often heard first. This one landed in the horse chestnut the trio of White-breasted Nuthatches were working over. Gleaners do like company. The multi-species flocking behavior of winter is always heartening to see.
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Spring Slithers In
The spring equinox was hit yesterday about 6 p.m. in our time zone. So welcome to the first day of spring!Meanwhile, last Saturday morning there was still ice out at Great Swamp NWR. There was not a skunk cabbage to be seen, but a few frogs were calling, unseen, echoing in the watery woods.It’s a…
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Raptor Wednesday
Merlins like the lookouts.This one was way up there grooming.Of course that altitude makes for a photographic challenge, what with the sun, the other trees, the snow-slopped mucky slope…If you open up this image, you can see that there are a lot of flying things up there with the grooming falcon. Some kind of fly…
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Spring Flies In
On Thursday, I saw two Phoebes in widely spaced parts of Green-Wood Cemetery. Clouds of insects were visible, too, so we know what these fly-catchers were hunting. The next day, when the temperature got close to 70, reports of Pine Warblers, usually the first warbler species of the year, came in from the cemetery as…
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Mammal Monday
It’s just remarkable how the sound of teeth gnawing on hickory shells travels in the winter woods.
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A Cedar Plum
“DID you ever chance to hear the midnight flight of birds passing through the air and darkness overhead, in countless armies, changing their early or late summer habitat? It is something not to be forgotten. A friend called me up just after 12 last night to mark the peculiar noise of unusually immense flocks migrating…
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Kestrel Renewal
Well, here they are, kitty-corner from last year’s cornice nest. Have seen no mating as yet, but that sure doesn’t mean there hasn’t been any. Picture above from March 5th. On Thursday, March 14th, at about 5:30pm, the same set up: both on the chimney pot after she flew there from a nearby roof pipe.…
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Fossils
A collection of fossils from Missouri, from back when the region was a shallow sea. Long before our time, my friends. These were a gift from a friend who recommended they be boiled a long, long time before they’re ready. I can’t get over the ones that look like liberty or Phrygian caps. You might…
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Raptor Wednesday
A young Red-tailed launches into the air in pursuit of… a Canada Goose? No, really? Yes, really. There were a dozen geese herding up the hill above Crescent Water in Green-Wood. The hawk raised a gaggle and disappeared from my sight. Then it flew back to this tree, making another pass of the geese as…
Backyard and Beyond 