mthew
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Oxyura jamaicensis
A lot of Canada geese on and around Sylvan Water. But just one female Ruddy Duck.
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Off-shore
White-winged Scoter. Long-tailed Duck (male). Long-tailed Duck (female), a bit further out. Common Eider (young male). Red-breasted Merganser (male). Red-breasted Merganser (female). Gadwall (duck and drake).
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Raptor Wednesday
Cooper’s. American Kestrel. Cooper’s. Merlin. Same Merlin from the back. Those red zig-zag twigs? A linden. More Cooper’s. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Brooklyn, NY, USA, has damn good raptors. As usual, all the above sightings, from this January, were within a mile or two of home. That first Cooper’s was…
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Fagus
A woodsy gargoyle … An allee of beeches always has a lot of detail. Pachydermal detail…
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Marsh
“Some enthusiastic entomologist will, perhaps, by and by discover that insects and worms are as essential as the larger organisms to the proper working of the great terraqueous machine […] The silkworm and the bee need no apologist; a gallnut produced by the puncture of an insect on a Syrian oak is a necessary ingredient…
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Tree, Mushroom, Bird
Woodpeckers have unusually stiff tail feathers. A broken branch of a wizened paper birch. I wonder if the bird knows to follow the mushrooms to the weakest wood? Seems a good bet. Remind me to take another look soon to see if this hole gets bigger.
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Raven
My first good look at a Common Raven this year, the sixth year I’ve been watching them here in Brooklyn. Sure, I hear them occasionally, and see them from a distance, but this was relatively close. This one landed with some food high up in a tree. The bird’s feathers are ready for molt! The…
