mthew
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Raptor Wednesday
I’ve wrapped up the #BrooklynKestrels season on the pages of the Clapper Rail, the publication of the Brooklyn Bird Club. Check it, as the kids say, out.It’s a double-raptor issue.
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Birds in the Rain
Yes, the bird has caught a little fish here, one of several seen captured and swallowed with dispatch.This Great Blue Heron flew some thousand feet across Beebe Lake in Ithaca to chase away another Great Blue that had just flown in. I would have thought there was room enough for two.Baby flycatchers?!This Cedar Waxwing posing…
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Gorges
“Ithaca is Gorges” is awfully good branding. I thought the gorges that sliced away through shales and sandstones at the northern and southern edges of Cornell were gorgeous.Fall Creek in the rain during the morning. Most of this one is seen from above, on the Cayuga Trail. Only disconcerting thing: all the anti-suicide netting on…
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Serpent Saturday
The highly variable Garter Snake, Thamnophis sirtalis. Twelve sub-species are listed at EOP; my venerable 2nd ed of Peterson’s lists six, with three color variations for the Eastern (Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis). *** A co-worker from back in the day is making a sign-a-day to encourage voting. Give her site a visit. I wish I was…
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Least Bittern III
The first time I saw a Least Bittern was on Padre Island, Texas. It was a brief glimpse, the bird jumping from one clump of reeds to another. The second time was strange: the bird was high up in a tree in Prospect Park.Third time is a charm of a cliche, but what a sighting!…
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A Patch of Mayapples
I’ve never seen so many Podophyllum peltatum fruits. This patch was up in the Finger Lakes region this past weekend.They aren’t quite ripe. When they are, they should smell “fruity” and weigh down the plants to the ground, according to Carol Gracie’s Spring Wildflowers of the Northeast. She also notes that an Asian Podophyllum species…
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Raptor Wednesday
A Red-tailed Hawk in the Bronx. This is one of the family of three fledglings seen earlier. Over the weekend, saw about a dozen Red-tailed Hawks on a road trip to Ithaca. Almost all were perched on phone poles. One was sitting atop a Cornell U dorm. Another was circling below a cloud of Turkey…
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Marine Park
Hot and fecund summer comes at you and doesn’t let up. My camera bursts with photos after a walk, an exploration, an adventure. Time barrels along, even though the humidity seems to want to slow it down. These are all from a trip three weeks ago to Marine Park on Brooklyn’s southern edge.A nice little…
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Backyard and Beyond 