mthew

For a while, I thought these were the best shots I was going to get of this Calcarius lapponicus foraging with Horned Lark at Floyd Bennett Field. (The bird was first reported Sunday). These shots were much better than the earlier ones I took, the birds being further away, but then I walked a big…

Red-tails galore. A trio of them were cavorting in the wind. All looked like last year’s models, without their red-tails yet. And all were frisky. Hither-and-yoning, they never all lined up as a trio for the lens. Simultaneously, a fourth was perched some blocks away on the taller of the two Industry City smokestacks.

The loons are usually further out, but here in Coney Island Creek with the low morning sun behind me, this Common was looking good. Further around the bend of Sea Gate, this Red-throated turned out to the only one I saw on my scramble around the far western “private beach” end of Coney Island. This…

Sometimes the claw is the only evidence. This is from one of the rock crab family, I think. Asian Shore Crab (Hemigrapsus sanguineus). Another tentative ID. Atlantic Blue Crab (Callinectes sapidus). Flat-clawed Hermit (Pagurus pollicaris). (Gave this one its own post.)

Former landfill, that is. Scenes from Shirley Chisholm State Park in winter. At least two female American Kestrels were hovering in search of prey. A sunnier day, from across low-tide Hendrix Creek.

A third to half of an Atlas Cedar (Cedrus atlantica) cone. Take off on of the scales… To reveal two of the winged seeds.

A Yew. Screaming Blue Jays. A couple of frozen Gray Squirrels. Plenty of clues…

Long-time readers may know that my most popular blog post ever was about these whelk egg cases. We have two types in the upper Mid-Atlantic and the Northeast. The pinched edges of these capsules mean this it the egg case of the Channeled Whelk/Busycotypus canaliculatus. Here’s one of the capsules separated from the chain. Often…