mthew
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Raptor Wednesday
I can’t recall ever being this close to a Red-tailed Hawk. This is the one I posted about a couple weeks ago.Beset by tiny songbirds, the bird perched no more than 10 feet above the ground.Eyelids closed! That’s something I don’t see often.Those feet!Yes, those feet. Those toes!
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Mammal Monday
This feature of the blog is sporadic, for there’s a rather limited selection of diurnal mammals to be found with any regularity in the city. But baby Eastern Chipmunks (Tamias striatus) should carry you through the weeks.Cute, right? Don’t be deceived by anthropomorphic mammal-philic charisma. Without regulating predators like coyotes and foxes, small mammals like…
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Dragonlets
Actual entomologists often trap their subject specimens. Some dragonflies can’t be identified unless they’re in the hand. Others rarely stop moving. (Red meadowhawks, I’m thinking of you.)Not that “capturing” a dragonfly by camera is easy. The swaying reed, the moving camera, the photographer’s crappy eyesight… When I spot a dragonfly I don’t think I’ve seen…
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AMKE Saturday
The male of the #BrooklynKestrels pair. I don’t know why he has this gape in his chest feathers. It’s gotten bigger and more noticeable over time. Some commenters on Twitter suggested it was a brood patch for a second round of eggs, but it seems high up on the body for that. Also, as far…
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Speaking of Ticks, or More Foxes, More Possums!
I didn’t have my camera with me, so recent run-ins with three young rabbits in the Bronx went unrecorded. Each of them was festooned with ticks, around the ears, face, and neck. Some of the ticks were hugely bloated, looking like malignant gumballs or creepy purple pearls. A few days later, armed again with lens…
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201 Years Young
Happy birthday, Henry David Thoreau! Here are some delicate yet immensely strong lacewing eggs suspended from swamp milkweed bespangled with aphids. A perfect posy for you! Now, it’s hard not to feel despair as kleptocratic-fundamentalist fascism runs rampant over the land. But don’t let the bastards get you down. They’re counting on our acquiescence and…
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Sweetbay
Sweetbay Magnolia has such a delightful perfume.Magnolia virginiana. A native of the southeast that stretches up the Atlantic to New York. You know what doesn’t smell so good: 53-year old Brett Kavanaugh, and Kennedy’s negotiations to have his former law clerk replace him while his (Kennedy’s) sons are complicit in Trump’s corruptions. On Young Kavanaugh,…
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Raptor Wednesday
Three in number, vocal in youth. (The third is hiding in the lower right.)The apricot/salmon flush to the breast is a sign of youth in Red-tailed Hawks. The feet are signs of raptor.Notice, too, how pale the underside of the tail feathers are.At least one parent was nearby, harried by Blue Jay and Eastern Kingbird.…
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Recent Sightings
A President under investigation shouldn’t be allowed to appoint judges who will decide cases involving him. The Republican corruption of justice continues. And on top of that, this Kavanaugh character is already lying by saying “No president has ever consulted more widely or talked to more people from more backgrounds to seek input for a…
Backyard and Beyond 