mthew
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Murals
In Fort Green. This reminds me that I need to check out the Audubon Mural Project up in Hamilton Heights, near JJA’s old home and burial sites. John Berger has passed away at the age of 90. “Nothing in the nature around us is evil,” he wrote in one of his many essays. “This needs…
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Raptor Wednesday
New Year’s Day dawned with a falcon alighting on top of the antenna perch a long block away. I assumed it was our old friend the male American Kestrel (Falco sparverius) who hangs out there a lot. But it was a Merlin (Falco columbarius), which are not as common here in the city. A Merlin…
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Belted Kingfisher
A male Belted Kingfisher (Megaceryle alcyon). At least two, a male and a female (who has a russet red belly band in addition to the blue, making them one of the few bird species in our parts where the female is the more colorful), have been spotted around Green-Wood’s four ponds for months now. These birds…
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Oak Wilt
Damn it! I really wanted to start on a positive note, but the bad news just keeps coming. Oak wilt has been discovered in Brooklyn. This is a lethal fungal infection of oaks and other species, its spores spread by beetles. When I was in Green-Wood on Friday, I heard a chipper hard at work.…
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A New Year
Built on the past. Awaiting the future. Full of promise. And danger. Aux armes, citoyens, Formez vos bataillons, Marchons, marchons! Qu’un sang impur Abreuve nos sillons! Casablanca has been playing at Film Forum here in NYC on it’s 75th year. This is so wonderfully cheesy and inspiring at the same time: You may recall that,…
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One More Time
Because awesome and delightful. When last we saw this Pied-billed Grebe on the Valley Water, ice covered more than half of the pond. The next time, ice covered it all and no grebe was to be seen. The bird presumably took off looking for open water. The water was completely free of ice yesterday, with…
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Preen
Northern Shoveler (Anas clypeata) male working on feather maintenance. There’s preening, and then there’s overweening preening. Did you see the Tiny-Fisted One’s Christmas “card” tweet? Cheeto Mussolini couldn’t even be bothered to gather together his klan o’ grifters for a bogus family picture. Sad.
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Hmm
There are some interesting bird figures carved around the Bethesda Terrace in Central Park. Jacob Wrey Mould, an English architect (and linguistic and musician), who worked closely with Olmsted and Vaux, is responsible for these rather exotic creatures.What would you call them? As with the Falconer, they’ve seen some serious damage, and the repair work…
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Raptor Wednesday
Always note the anomalies, the bumps.Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) on railing. Showing the “belly band” nicely. Way down in the flatlands, 1st & 40th, Raven country.Another day, another sighting. Big shoulders, relatively short, squared-off tail. The mottled white patches on the back, sometimes a little more clearly in a V pattern, are another good sign…
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Franklinia
A late fall visit to the only Franklinia alatamaha in Central Park.This tree is considered extinct in the wild, yet survives as an ornamental through the trade and botanical institutions. Its original range was quite limited, in the Altamaha River valley of Georgia. We’re definitely north of that, but a wait a bit… by…
Backyard and Beyond 