Backyard and Beyond

When twenty Monk Parakeets are hooting and hollering, you know something’s up.
Ah, yes. Atop the Neo-Gothic pile of an entrance gate designed by Richard Upjohn for Green-Wood Cemetery, there’s a large parakeet nest.

And on this day, there was a Red-tailed Hawk.
The bird did some stretching.
And flexing. Note how the darker bands in the tail are thinner than the lighter bands on this immature bird. The red tail feathers should all be in this spring to summer, the bird’s first birthday. In the immature Red-Shouldered hawk, which looks a lot like an immature Red-tailed from the back, the bands are evenly-sized.
This is a warning.
Look out below! That white squiggle is excrement.