Fieldnotes
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Raptor Wednesday
Since a November snow storm blew down the dead, upright branch on this London plane tree across the street, the American Kestrels have rarely been in this tree. That branch, with its knobby top, provided a perfect perch. Much of the kestrel activity has lately taken place on a TV antenna behind this tree. Now…
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Lizard
An Eastern Fence Lizard (Sceloporus undulatus) that liked this log so much we saw it going out and coming back on this path in Virginia.I least I think it’s the same specimen: the lighting, distance, and angle causing the color variation here. These critters perch hunt, meaning they sit and wait for something (“wood-boring beetles,…
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Gavia immer
Common Loons are not uncommon in our waters in winter. But they’re usually way off shore and the wind is blowing you down! And they’re not in their breeding finery like this one, in Gravesend Bay recently. Shouldn’t it be up in the north country loooooooooooning?The knobby head makes me thing of a sock puppet,…
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Laughing into Monday
Good to see the Laughing Gulls back in town. I heard them overhead for a couple of days before seeing any. These were out at Gravesend Bay and Floyd Bennet Field.An immature Ring-billed Gull, a mature Greater Black-backed Gull, and a Brant let you know that Laughing Gulls are on the smaller size. (The GBBG…
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Some Birds
Migration is thickening. Here a few recent sightings:Yellow-rumped Warbler.Palm Warbler.Blue-eyed Vireo.
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Flicker-esque
Northern Flickers are often seen on the ground, foraging for ants and other arthropods.These two were doing a more typical woodpeckery thing on the arboreal verticals. Note, especially in the first image, the tail feathers pressed down against the bark. Woodpeckers have stiffer tail feathers than perching birds.These are both females, by the way. No…
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City Nature Challenges
The City Nature Challenge starts tomorrow. Are you in? Here’s a good description of it: “Cities around the world will be competing to see who can make the most observations of nature, find the most species, and engage the most people.” The event measures how many people enter observations, and how many observations individuals make,…
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Raptor Wednesday
American Kestrel male way up there looking for lunch.Ditto this Merlin. Even higher, for this bird is near the top of the reputed tallest tree in Green-Wood, a tuliptree (yellow poplar). Same day as the kestrels above and below.This is the local #BrooklynKestrels male.He has prey.The pair cache prey on this roof, under the solar…
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Pipilo erythrophthalmus
Eastern Towhee, often more heard than seen because they like the shadows of the shrubs and the woodland floor and the thickness of the scrub. “Pipilo” comes from the Latin for to peep or to chirp. This is a male, seen in Green-Wood.In the southeast, you can find them with white eyes. Up here they…
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Earth Day
This beat-up skull comes courtesy of a Great Horned Owl. The owl chomped this down and then spit it back up after the bird’s battery acid stomach had a go at it. I think these might be the remains of a Grey Squirrel skull. Found with plenty of grey hair smushed into the cavities. Cleaned up…
Backyard and Beyond 