mthew

On January 1, 2015, I saw two Common Ravens canoodling at the end of 39th Street. (Down beyond 1st Avenue; let’s call it O Avenue.) They mated, nested, and raised a brood that year, for the first time in Brooklyn in I don’t know how long. Since then, Common Ravens have become a relatively common…

In the Whiteness of the Whale chapter of Moby Dick, Melville asks, “Is it that by its indefiniteness it shadows forth the heartless voids and immensities of the universe, and thus stabs us from behind with the thought of annihilation, when beholding the white depths of the milky way?” Pshaw!

The war on nature, which is of course also a war on that familiar component of nature—ourselves—is never ending. Most battles are local, often small-scale and unknown to outsiders: this sliver of green, that corner of wetlands, the lakeside trail, the “empty lot,” but they’re all quilted into the larger fabric.  Friends of B &…

January 24; perhaps a half inch long, this rove beetle was scampering around the vertical face of a small bank at the edge of the upper beach. I wonder if it was disrupted from winter sequestration by the erosion. January 30: Seven-spotted Lady Beetle.

An adult Bald Eagle has been hanging out at Prospect Park for a few weeks. It’s even made the gossip pages of New York Magazine. It’s thought this is one of the nesting pair on one of the little islands in Jamaica Bay. Yes, nesting Bald Eagles in Brooklyn! (Making for the second city nest:…

The only warbler you expect this time of year is the Yellow-rumped (Myrtle), hanging out along the dunes of the city’s edges, where they scarf up bayberries. And they usually move in small flocks. Saw some last month on Staten Island. The loner above puzzled me. The yellow under-tail coverts along with the dark tail…

This bend in the linden is a favored perch. But this was the only time I saw a Merlin up there in January. As I was returning some 30-45 minutes later to this spot I heard an unfamiliar sound. The Merlin powered overhead at impressive speed, veered sharply right towards the sun where there was…

This was the same crow as yesterday. I thought the bird was working some raw or rare meat. Common Loon with a crab. Which it chomped down on sending pieces flying.

What a nice surprise–my first Mourning Cloak of the year. And so early, too! This is the second observation in NY state on iNaturalist this month, the first in NYC. It was very sunny and in the low 50s F this morning near noon in the Dell in Green-Wood. Nymphalis antiopa, also known as the…

Ring-billed eating seaweed. Another Ring-billed. Crow stripping the bark off this piece of wood. Presumably to get at something inside the wood.