Fieldnotes
-
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…
-
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.…
-
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…
-
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.
-
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…
-
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…
-
Super-sizing the Bird List
How many species of birds are there in the world? It has generally been considered that there are between 9,000-10,000. This new study upends that, suggesting that the number should be double the earlier estimate. (Here’s the actual paper.) Well, wow! We have defined species as animals that can breed together. But if you pay…
-
Cedar Waxwings Bathing
Day two of winter. Can spring be far behind? (No shadows of the waxwing slain here.) Yes, a little bit of last spring and perhaps a forecast of the next. Now, Cedar Waxwings are not unknown this time of year, but they are irregular, meaning you never know. I’ll be presenting a slide-show lecture on…
-
Snow Geese
Amidst perhaps 200 Canada Geese (Branta canadensis) on the Upper Pool, a trio of Snow Geese (Chen caerulescens).The all-white with black wingtips bird (spectacular in flight) in the background is an adult. The varying-degrees-of-gray are youngsters.This is actually one of the most abundant species of waterfowl on the continent, but since we don’t have any…
-
Hard Shell
One of my favorite binomials is Mercenaria mercenaria, the hard-shelled clam that has numerous common names depending on its age/size: Littleneck, countneck, topneck, cherrystone. The oldest/largest are known as quahogs, a.k.a. chowder clams. The purple stain on the inside of the shell here is the famous wampum, which was used by native Americans as a…
Backyard and Beyond 