Fieldnotes
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Anniversary
For the ninth anniversary of this blog, some Great Horned Owl.January 26.February 3. (The hollering Blue Jays abated for a moment.)(But only a moment.)February 10. For three weekends, vocal Blue Jays have pointed their piecing calls to a roosting Great Horned Owl. Different trees each time. Given that 9 out of 10 times, the Blue…
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Gymnocladus dioicus
The distinctive bark of a young Kentucky coffeetree.The branches look dead in winter, bare of twigs, the buds hidden away. The genus name translates as “naked branch.”The high top of this older male tree looked amazingly shrubby.A nearby female was festooned with seed pods.The bark of a mature specimen. Of trees and their memories: there’s…
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Wintersongs
Winter in Green-Wood. A chorus of Blue Jays. Red-bellied Woodpeckers chortling. White-breasted Nuthatches, very Steve Reich. Every tree has one, said a fellow listener, only slightly exaggerating. Much more subtly, the Red-breasted Nuthatches seem to be talking to themselves inside their yews. Guttural Ravens, so emphatic. Canada Geese honking –incoming, duck! Cardinals cheerfully pierce the…
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Raptor Wednesday
A ruckus of Blue Jays, then something large swoops up to land on a branch in the woods. A hawk! But it’s not the expected Red-tailed (Buteo jamaicensis) — one of which was seen just minutes beforehand in the air. This bird calls in a distinctive kee-yar, kee yar! It’s a young Red-Shouldered (Buteo lineatus).…
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Twiggy
I saw this and the shape and size instantly put me in mind of a pupa. Then I had doubts. It is so incredibly twig-like! Yet the concentric rings, the firm binding at the top to the stone, and the secondary binding on the side, just a thin, flexible thread, were all there to convince…
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Mammal Monday
Wait, what?This gruesome sight greeted me recently not very far from where a roosting Great Horned Owl was being yelled at by Blue Jays. Suspicion isn’t evidence, but caching of prey is something these big owls do. Especially in nesting season. The male has to hunt more than usual since the female spends so much…
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Raptor Notes
From all over, but mostly from the window. Here’s a Cooper.Kestrel on the same fire escape, with prey.Cooper again, another day.A Kestrel several blocks away, atop Sunset Park HS. I always glance up here when entering or exiting the 36th Street subway station.Red-tailed Hawk with full crop. In #BrooklynKestrel news, a male was seen regularly…
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Downy WP
Our smallest woodpecker is the least concerned with us. I walked underneath this one, which was a couple feet above me, before noticing it. They’ll range into the streets and backyards of the city more commonly than the Red-bellied, Yellow-bellied, Hairy, and Northern Flicker, the other species found around here.The red feathers mark a male.
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Red-tailed Hawk…
Continuing from yesterday… This yearling Red-tailed Hawk, which I’m pretty sure is the same one I’ve seen in this area of Green-Wood repeatedly, had recently eaten something.Swallowed the portion stored in the crop,and excreted.Then it started looking around the neighborhood.Next to this tombstone was an evergreen bush.Hawk just waded into it.And pulled out a dead…
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Raptor Wednesday — Birthday Edition
I almost walked into this Red-tailed Hawk before seeing it. I backed up and went around a handy mausoleum, used another mausoleum for cover, and ended up within ten feet. For nearly fifteen minutes, I got to watch.That’s food bulging in the bird’s crop. You can also see the stuffed crop pushing the feathers out…
Backyard and Beyond 