mthew

What a purple! A couple of Purple-spored Puffballs/Calvatia cyathiformis.

I see Peregrine(s) atop St. Michael’s fairly often. But I’m usually two long blocks away… Sometimes, I manage to capture a quick fly-by. So when this silhouette caught my eye in Green-Wood recently, my first thought was it was too big for a Merlin. Oh my, yes.

It’s been a great winter for White-breasted Nuthatches in Green-Wood. Red-breasted Nuthatch sightings have been a much rarer occurrence. One or two is the most I’ve seen. This feeder has been very reliable for at least one.

A mouthful of sawdust spewed out…

A Red-tailed Hawk was looking for a moaning Gray Squirrel in a thicket below. Two Blue Jays were harrying the hawk. Then this Cardinal flew up to a branch below the hawk and started to twist around in place on the branch. Eye on the hawk much of the time…

More Red-tailed Hawk hijinks. Three were in the air: these two adults (the male is smaller) and a first year bird. The juvenile ventured some squirrel hunting on the ground… … the two adults landed above. This was the scene that had the three squirrels worrying, as seen in yesterday’s post. Half an hour later,…

The first and fourth images are of the same individual, a few minutes apart. So these are three different squirrels keeping very still as three Red-tailed Hawks perched on nearby trees.

Guess this was sap, since there didn’t seem to be any reservoir above for water to drip down from. And who, frankly, wants to know?