May 2020
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Neck
This Great Egret came in for a landing, but there was another one on the shore. The two of them flew into a tussle. Not sure which one won. The other circled a few times and flew off.
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American Robins
A just visible broken eye-ring. Elsewhere, a yolk-filled egg on the ground, cracked open. Some tiny insects had drowned in the yoke. Yet again elsewhere, an inch of life that didn’t. Grubstake… worm and something else. “Terrifying are the attent sleek thrushes on the lawn” writes Ted Hughes from the invertebrate’s light-sensor view.
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Two Well-Grounded Warblers
Ovenbird. Worm-eating Warbler. (Needs a better publicist, right?)
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Raptor Wednesday
In the distance, the eagle is landing. Saturday morning, a young Bald Eagle was flying around Green-Wood again. Someone spotted two of them on Sunday. I heard one was spotted on Monday morning, chased by Red-tailed Hawks. But back to Saturday’s personal encounter. The left leg band is black, but I couldn’t read it. Here’s…
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Beech
Leaves and flower of European beech, Fagus sylvatica. I don’t think this is one of those purple beeches (all the fancy copper, weeping, cut-leaf, etc. varieties stem from F. sylvatica), just that the new leaves are initially full of red. Not uncommon for just-budded leaves. Anthocyanins seem to protect the tender leaves from too much…
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Mammal Monday
I’ve been watching squirrels rush along mid-building parapets and window casements to get to this spot all winter. Thought it was a nest, and voila, four youngsters! Parent on the left in these pictures. I gather that there’s plastic covering a small A/C unit here. The outer lining, open at the top? Don’t know what…
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Mniotilta varia
Black-and-white Warblers are quick-moving bark-foragers. They are one of our more common warblers, but they are hard to capture without a flash. The binomial: the genus means moss-plucking, since they may use moss (and horsehair and grasses) to line their nests. Species epithet varia means varied, for the plumage. Small bird, big tree. With a…
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Rough-winged Swallows
Surprised by half a dozen of these earlier this week. Barn and Tree Swallows are the more usual locals, with an occasionally Rough-winged in the mix during migration. But they do nest in the city: Staten Island, the Bronx, possibly Queens, according to the last breeding bird atlas, done in the Oughts. (The Third Atlas…
Backyard and Beyond 