On a dark and gloomy day, this distant hawk looked different from the usual. Red-tailed Hawks are the usual Buteos. The adults are of course distinctive with their brick red tails, but ones under a year don’t have this tell-tale tail. While the first two images aren’t particularly good photos, they do tell us a…

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The first rule of Raptor Club is to look at every raptor. Blob in a tree is probably a Red-tailed Hawk. Unless it isn’t, as in this case. Look at those tail stripes! A red vest to go with the pinstripes on the tail. Very debonair is an adult Red-shouldered Hawk. Some polka dots on…

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There’s no mistaking an adult Bald Eagle, even at a distance. Hell, even unfocused… This was over Green-Wood. I hear talk of an adult passing over Prospect Park Lake with some regularity. That was the direction this bird was headed. I was in Prospect Park December 10th, and lookee here: a passing juvenile Bald Eagle.…

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There are some trees that I always look at if I’m near them. I have my patch, the raptors have theirs. Standard small falcon silhouette above. I’ve never seen a Merlin on this tree, so I had to get closer to double-check. American Kestrel male, a regular up there. Here he is again. On another…

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Male American Kestrel. My files are bursting with recent winter raptor sightings, all from a few blocks of home here in Brooklyn, New York. The four birds here were all seen within a 15-minute span the other day. For several winters, one or two Peregrines perching on this smokestack were a regular occurrence, but last…

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Driftwood. Surf Clam shell colonized by Serpulid Tubeworms. The Plumed Worm (Diopatra cuprea) fastens bits of shell to its case. Here’s one I took apart. At least nine species of mollusk shell represented here. The tubes were a surprise. Casings of some kind of Parchment Tubeworm (Family Chaetopteridae). Bryozoan remains, with Polychaete worm tubes on it. Another…

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Tiny bill. “Red” breast. Webbed foot. Mostly round. Ringed bill, ringe faced, ringed neck. Racing stripes. Somewhat vulture-like. Spring is just around the corner! Palm Warbler in mid-December. Original recipe? Medium: Donne.

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Found two of these on Oakwood Beach on Staten Island recently. Unusually bulky and flat, comparatively, they turn out to be the main claw of Flat-clawed Hermit Crabs (Pagurus pollicaris), a species I wasn’t aware of. Looking at potential homes for them (different sizes/ages of Northern Moon, Shark Eye, Channeled Welks), you can see how…

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Perch. Soar. Perch again. Chase after Red-tail in your patch. ~ News: Ten (10) days after screwing up the front page of the Sunday print edition, the New York Times publishes a correction. (They want your email to read their corrections if you don’t subscribe.) Originally, they incorrectly credited my photograph to another iNaturalist user…

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Winter solstice is around sunset tonight (EST).

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