Fieldnotes
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Breeding Birds
The third edition of the New York State Breeding Bird Atlas project is underway. So far I’ve submitted observations to ebird of American Kestrels mating and Common Ravens carrying nesting material. One of them, anyway. I almost always hear these big corvids before I see them. One of their most common calls is a “ha-rupp”…
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I’m Easy Lichen Sunday Morning…
When hunting lichens, it’s important to blend in. Stalking wild Lecanoromycetes is made all the easier by wearing appropriate camouflage. Lichens are slow, but they can see you coming. Glad to see the professionals agree! Back in December, my partner Molly and I discovered a very rare-for-the-city Usnea lichen. When another Usnea genus lichen was…
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A Grab-Bag of Wintery Sights
In a not very wintery winter.* A moth to be here, found on the underside of a piece of bark shed by the tree. (This is the outer side of the bark, but it was upside down on the ground.) Another moth (I think) cocooned on a shingle oak leaf. A mess o’ mantids. This…
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Prunus serotina
There are still, after all these years, parts of Green-Wood I’ve never been. I came across this massive black cherry only recently. It was after a big wind and bits of the scaly bark and branches were scattered about. The mature bark is very different from the younger stuff from way up there. Turning over…
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Raptor Wednesday
Passing Bald Eagle. Coasting Red-tailed Hawk. On Saturday, there were four overhead at the same time. Merlin. I regularly saw them late last year, but this was the last time I spotted one, back in the middle of January. American Kestrel male perched on this 1960s vision of a future telecommunications center. Female and male…
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What Colors!
I can’t believe there are still fish in the Dell and Crescent Waters, since this male Belted Kingfisher has been around all winter dipping into the stock here. Here he has a goldfish. Usually they just scarf their prey down PDQ, flipping it so it’s head first and then sluuuurrrppppp! This bird, however, just chortled…
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Sunday
For the third year in a row, American Kestrels are in the ‘hood! A male has been around all winter, spotted almost every day. But lately a female has appeared. Copulation was observed on 1/23 on a roof pipe just to the right of this chimney pot. No sign of a female again until this…
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Birds At Last!
Green-Wood has been virtually empty of birds this winter, but last weekend I came across a bundle of them all in the same patch. Flock yes! Brown Creeper, first sighting this winter. Golden-crowned Kinglet. Spotted a Ruby Crowned elsewhere as well. Not one but two Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers on the same trunk. Two Northern Flickers. Only…
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More Galls
I found a mother-of-gall tree! A red oak, Quercus rubra, in Green-Wood. This tree was probably brought in as a sapling a few years ago. I wonder where it was raised? Could it be that the gall-making species came in with the tree, as we’ve seen with lichens transported into the city on saplings destined…
Backyard and Beyond 