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.”

Beach Corpses

I’ve seen a good number of dead birds over the years, and I’m almost always surprised by how difficult I find it to identify their scraggly-miserable corpses. I took a look at this bill on Plumb Beach and thought…tern?

But in December?

Pink feet and a wide black band on the tail also pushed this away from terns.

This is a Bonaparte’s Gull/Chroicocephalus philadelphia, in what I guess is first winter plumage. These birds are found in waters locally this time of year, but as a landlubber I almost never see them up close.

On the other hand, there was no mistaking this huge body.

Getting to Plumb Beach, I walked along the Sheepshead Bay shore and saw more than a dozen live Mute Swans/Cygnus olor. This one didn’t make it.

mthew

2 responses to “Beach Corpses”

  1. nature969

    Thanks for your post sharing the circle of life.

    Reply
  2. charlesmcalexander28

    I had a simillar disorientation the first time I saw birds museum-dressed and in trays. They were all so small and fragile looking. Robust robins seemed the size of warblers. Warblers seemed about on a par with hummingbirds. And hummingbirds, well, I almost needed a lens.

    There is something about the presence of life which enlarges the space a living thing inhabits. Once that life is gone we are left a pile of parts and the space required to hold it is significantly smaller.

    Reply

Leave a comment