Fieldnotes
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Bathing Hawk
Bathing is vital for feather maintenance.But being in the water out in the open can make you fairly vulnerable if you’re not a buoyant, oily-feathered waterfowl. This small Accipiter found a weeping something or other arching over the water use as a shower curtain.The bird stood in the water for quite a while and…
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And another leaf…
…is unfurled.Meanwhile, a crab apple (Malus) begins to bloom.Less delicately, the thumb-sized bud of a Horse-chestut (Aesculus hippocastanum) still contains its upright chandelier of flowers and leaves.A young seed-ball of the London Plain (Platanus × acerifolia) blown off in Sunday’s high wind and mushed up on contact with the sidewalk. This was a little under…
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Boat-tailed Grackle
The Common Grackle (Quiscalus quiscula) is no stranger in our midst, but you really need to be along the coast to spot a Boat-tailed Grackle (Quiscalus major). Marine Park had a few of them foraging in the reed stubble recently. Here’s one of these spectacular “blackbirds.” They are bigger than the Commons, with longer tails…
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Sunset Park Elm
The chartreuse edition.And on the micro level, a single seed from the rich crop the tree is now laden with. Remember, elms are wind-pollinated, so the early flowering resulting in early fruiting. On average, it takes 70,900 of these little winged seeds to make up a pound, according to this USFS site. But wait, a…
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Redbudding
The Redbuds (Cercis canadensis) are coming, the Redbuds are coming! Another day, another tree.
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Monkish Meditation?
In fact, this Monk Parakeet (Myiopsitta monachus) is busy as any other bird foraging in the grass.
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Duck!
It was an absurd thing to say, I admit, but it’s all I could think of this morning at the Battery just before I fell to the ground. This was no duck, it was an enormous eagle passing right over our heads as we kissed the concrete, so close we could hear the rush of…
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Wild Thing: You Make My Heart Sing
The woodland floor, even in a microscopic sample, is a wonderland. The little bit of wonderland at Pier 1 at Brooklyn Bridge Park is currently aflutter with wildflowers, spring’s advance guard, taking advantage of the sun before the trees shade the ground. Some are already abloom, others are readying to bloom, yet others are just…
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Pandion haliaetus Redux
About that binomial: Pandion was a mythical king of Athens who had two daughters, Philomel and Procne. The latter married Tereus, king of Thrace, even though he wanted Philomel. To get Philomel, the Thracian cut out Procne’s tongue and pretended she was dead. Unable to speak her woe, Procne informed her sister of her fate by…
Backyard and Beyond 