Backyard and Beyond

Starting out from Brooklyn, an amateur naturalist explores our world.

As John Burroughs said, “The place to observe nature is where you are.”

Raptor Wednesday

But first, this Chimney Swift. That’s the Statue of Liberty in the background, through the smoke that’s stretched across the continent from western fires. Usually such smoke drifts by way in the atmosphere. But this was low: it was NYC’s worse air-quality day in nearly two decades.
The local American Kestrels and Fish Crows are not friends.
Still hearing the Brooklyn Kestrels. Saw a trio of them Monday. Usually it’s only one or two at the same time now.
Yesterday’s sun about 45 minutes from sunset.
And yes, that is a perched female Kestrel to the left of the stupa.

mthew

One response to “Raptor Wednesday”

  1. Chuck McAlexander

    I wonder about the toxic intake from the fires added to the usual poisons we spew into the environment. The incredible efficiency of bird respiration combined with the oxygen demand of flight has to mean they take in a lot more of that stuff per pound of body mass than we do. Do birds get asthma or COPD?

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