Fieldnotes
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As spring follows winter
From this past September, a flashback to Adalia bipunctata.As I was trying to photograph another, this one found its way onto my arm. It readily adopted to my fingers for some photos.
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Three Mammals on an Early Spring Day
Eastern Gray Squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis).Eastern Chipmunk (Tamias striatus).Raccoon (Procyon lotor).Tail-grooming (de-fleaing?).
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And then suddenly
From the embrowned earth, the colors of early spring.Crocuses.And Snowdrops.And Winter Aconite.
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Red-Shouldered Hawk
A Red-shouldered Hawk (Buteo lineatus) perches near the Nature Center at Marine Park. A brief sighting; the bird zoomed off quick as a… hawk. Usually birds of the forest, they’re a rare sight in the city; I last saw one in Brooklyn in March 2011, at Calvert Vaux Park. I hear that this one has…
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Area Closed
The signs are back up at the grasslands at Floyd Bennett Field. This doesn’t stop everybody, but they are better than nothing. Stay off the grasslands. Leave them to the Kestrels (Falco sparverius). This is a male, with blue on the wing.The signs are a handy perch. These birds hunt by hovering over the ground,…
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Springish
A Red-tailed Hawk was plucking a white fancy pigeon or maybe it was a peacenik dove; the feathers were drifting towards Grand Army Plaza like errant snowflakes. A small crowd gathered to watch, some aghast. There was a Hairy Woodpecker resounding away in the Lullwater, ratta-tapping a dead limb for all to hear. Those bellwethers…
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Late Afternoon Composition
Overcast day, industrial ruins, harbor, Double-crested Cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus).
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At the House of D
Peregrine (Falco peregrinus) at entrance to the scrape. There are many finely-tuned words in falconry: “scrape” is purely descriptive; the birds may scrape a shallow depression for their nest. That’s about all the nest is. These hybrid urban falcons, though… it seems unlikely there was any soft earth or gravel in this utilitarian space, just…
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Rusty BB
The Rusty Blackbird (Euphagus carolinus) is a species in deep trouble. According to the International Rusty Blackbird Working Group, the species has shown “chronic long-term and acute short-term population declines,” more so than any other species we see. The numbers are startling, with a population plummet from 85-95% over the last century. The reason for…
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Coastal Brooklyn, Part II
So much depends on light and distance. The Red-necked Grebe (Podiceps grisegena) above was sun-ward and far.This Horned Grebe (Podiceps auritus) was sun-struck and near. Both of these species have very different breeding plumages, which they are named after (that’s not so helpful to those of us so far south of their breeding grounds). I…
Backyard and Beyond 