mthew
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Through The Window
The point of this blog is to celebrate the wildlife right outside our doors, wherever we are. Sometimes, of course, we don’t even need to leave the house. I was alerted to those Ravens by vocal Fish Crows (Corvus ossifragus). Here’s one from that morning, on a pole at the back end of the row…
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Chimneys and their Swifts
Brick chimneys are things of beauty, old utilitarian architecture made pleasing by shape and material. Bricks, made of clay, sand, shale, and heat, have a particularly earthy appeal. I’m posting this today to remind us of the Chimney Swifts (Chaetura pelagica) overhead now. I see and hear them regularly both on top of the Harbor Hill Moraine…
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Eel
Last Saturday, there was a fish survey around the archipelago of NYC and further up the Hudson River. I was too lazy to go to any of the events, but that morning I did run across an interesting sample. On Bush Terminal Park’s pier was this half-an-eel. American Eel Anguilla rostrata, the adult stage of…
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Barn Swallow and Others
Finding a swallow isn’t so hard, but finding one taking a breather sure is.Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica) breed in various places in the city; this female was at Bush Terminal, so I’d be willing to bet there’s a nest nearby. A couple of years ago, I watched another pair gathering mud for a nest under…
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In The Rain
Aster-family something. Spiderwort (Tradescantia). Juneberries (Amelanchier)
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You Don’t Need To Be A Weatherman To Tell Which Way the Wind Is Blowing
Last week, we had some nice views of the more common Black-crowned Night Heron, Nycticorax nycticorax. This is a Yellow-crowned Night Heron (Nyctanassa violacea).If you squinch up your eyes, you can sort of get that creamy yellow crown color the birds are named after… remember that a lot of birds got their names from a…
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Marine Park Heaven and Hell
Rails are elusive, secretive, reed-habitat specialists, blending in quite nicely in their saltwater and brackish marshes in their thin-as-a-rail way. Clapper Rail (Rallus crepitans) less so than the others. For one thing, they can be quite vocal: their namesake “clap” is more of a “kek.” Recently, we heard several at Marine Park and saw three…
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City Life
A scene from Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, Queens, NY. My friend Traci Paris has launched a beginner’s guide to noticing and exploring nature in the five boroughs of New York City called Slow Nature Fast City. You should check it out. (It’s inspiring me to shake up the design of this blog, now in its…
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Raven Family Over Sunset Park
The sound of Fish Crows made me look out the window late this morning. This was my view (well, with a little help from my camera) from up here on the Harbor Hill Moraine. And those are the crows on top of each of the neighboring water towers.Which makes these huge midnight figures on the…
