Not just bird-feeder-gangsters, Turfted Titmice will evidently go for the processed grains as well. And acorns. Remember that time I saw one scavenging a Winter Wren? Yes, it’s a tiny watering hole. Chickadees taking a sip, too. FYI: One of my photographs of an unknown oak gall wasp species was used for this interesting article…

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The most spectacular sighting on this rip-rap of fossiliferous rocks, first spotted by Molly. These segments are about 2″ wide. Is this, as fossil-co-explorer Paul thinks, a Eurypterid or sea scorpion. It reminded us all of lobster. (Eurypterus remipes is the NY state fossils: “these rare fossils occur in great numbers in rocks found near…

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Some more brachiopods, in both cases with both halves of the shell mineralized together. Amazing, right? What is this? About 2-3″ long (I couldn’t get closer.) Amazingly intact stem of a crinoid? You may be older than I am, so sing out if you recognize anything on this and previous posts.

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A couple of crows were harrying this young Red-tailed Hawk in the sleet after the raptor caught a Feral Pigeon. The raptor was unmoved by the corvids. The crows left. The sun came out. The hawk perched up there for at least half an hour before starting to pluck. Grasping, plucking, and eating: all told,…

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Finally, something in these halter-skeleton layers of mind-bending age that I tracked down: Leptaena genus brachiopods. “Common in limestone that formed on shallow continental shelves” now found in “Ordovician, Silurian, and Devonian strata worldwide” (Chris and Helen Pellant Fossils: A Photographic Field Guide). Over 70 recognized extinct species per Wikipedia: with a more detail on…

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Holy ancient seabeds, J. Alfred Prufrock! Remember when I stumbled upon some fossils in a rip-rap bulkhead holding the bay in abeyance? Well, here are some more, at another city location. (This archipelago is much stone-girt.) These rocks are even more littered with the detritus of millions of years ago. I haven’t been able to…

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A feather from a Northern Flicker blows around this Cooper’s bill. ~ In case you missed it, I have new Medium piece up on the Davis/Wiener history of L.A. in the Sixties. It’s not about hawks–but the next one will be.

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More hyper-local American Kestrels. These are about a 1/3rd of an avenue block away. They’re acting like it’s April! One avenue block away, several minutes earlier. The female has food here. A few blocks away in Green-Wood… Male chasing a Red-tailed Hawk. On a linden with a view. Red-tailed Hawks and Coopers Hawks perch up…

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From a distance: the large-headed silhouette of a small falcon. This tree on a hill is Merlin country in the winter months, but the last time I saw something up there a few weeks ago it was an American Kestrel. This time, by the time I hustled up closer, the bird was gone. A couple…

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From two long avenue blocks away… hence the muddiness of these images. A Peregrine has been perching of a morning atop Mike’s Spike, not an unusual winter habit for this species. The first image, of a Peregrine in flight, looks like another bird, a juvenile this time; class of ’22. The fifth of five straight…

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