mthew
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Kestrel Week Preview
The view the other morning. The male American Kestrel arrived first. We heard him before we saw him, as has been typical of the last week, when these little falcons have been in the neighborhood every day. The Starlings followed. But then, quick as a flash, the Starlings disappeared.Yes, it suddenly turned into a two-raptor morning.*…
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Bald Eagles Over the Hudson
An hour north of New York City, the Hudson River Valley is absolutely lousy with Bald Eagles. If you’re old enough to remember, this is a radical change from the 1960s-1980s. In 1981, there were no occupied territories [a category that doesn’t even necessarily include breeding pairs] in Connecticut, only one in New Jersey, and…
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After the Smoke Clears
You have to look harder in winter, but your eyes will be rewarded when you do. Here’s a twig of a Smokebush (Cotinus): it’s purpler in real life, especially with the low winter sun hitting it full on. This smokey bush is fairly impenetrable to the eyes in the growing season, making it great cover.…
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Raptor Wednesday
About to ascend the steps of the City Hall subway station, I heard a Peregrine. Or thought I did, anyway: the subterranean is generally not good habitat for falcons. Emerging in the plaza besides the old Tweed Courthouse, I looked all around, raptor-senses tingling. I didn’t hear it again. My eyes did fall on a…
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A Tree for Tuesday
I was circling around St. Michael’s tower in search of the Kestrels that have been frequenting the raptor anvil, as I like to call it, atop the cross up there. These local falcons will be a subject of a future week’s worth of posts. Yes, they have been active! This excursion gave me an opportunity…
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Mammal Monday: Wait, How Many?
Judging from the poop, Green-Wood is over-run with Raccoons (Procyon lotor). They need some coyotes. During the day, you can occasionally see a few way up in a pine or other conifer, sleeping, scratching. Less frequently, you can see a whole family in their swank condo wondering who the hell you are.
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Flies
They get no respect, the two-winged insects known as flies. The biters, bloodsuckers, shit-eaters, in-flesh laying parasites, maggot-spawners. Ooooog, you say, why are you doing this to me on a Sunday morning? Well, at least they’re not Republicans. There are an estimated 17 million flies for each and every human. We’d be drowning in excrement…
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Song Again
It wasn’t the mother lode of American Robins that made me think that spring couldn’t be far off now. Most of our local Robins do head south for winter, but some stick around in wide-ranging flocks to eat fruits instead of invertebrates. Above are a few of the fifty or so I came across in…
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Sap Fall
A great frozen waterfall of beech sap stalactiting from a massive specimen. The hang here is two plus feet!Gorgeous, but a sign of distress for the tree.
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Raptor Wednesday
A Red-tailed Hawk flew by with a Gray Squirrel hanging from its talons, the long bushy tail a banner of mammalian defeat. The hawk landed in a tree and spent maybe a minuted pulling at the mammal with its beak, no doubt ending its life. But the bird then moved to another part of the…
Backyard and Beyond 