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Journal of the Pandemic Year Just Passed But Hardly Over
The city is littered with used masks. I’ve worn a bandana or mask outside our apartment since March to protect myself, my loved ones, and my neighbors. I’ve also masked as a mark of community and solidarity. Alas, we have fuckers in our very building who don’t share this concern, so we have been forced…
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Out With A Bang
Our smallest woodpecker, the Downy, (Picoides pubescens) is also the boldest in terms of its tolerance of people. Note how the inner eyelid closes on contact. The red patch marks this as a male. This is a Kentucky Coffee Tree. I’m usually long abed by midnight, so here’s a virtual “happy new year!” Anything better…
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YBS
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus varius) showing the yellow belly for a change. I’m assuming this is a female working towards adult plumage. Sapsucking. The bird drills out holes to pool sap, which she eats, along with any insects attracted to the sap. (We’ve had some Diptera still flying in this mild Decemeber.) Yews (Taxus) are particularly…
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Woodpecker Wednesday
A little woodpecker variety for the last Wednesday of the year. Above, a male Downy (Picoides pubescens), who pounded out a grub from a larch branch. These little woodpeckers will range through the borough. This, however, is a Hairy Woodpecker (Dryobates villosus), which is uncommon in Brooklyn. This, from the middle of the month, is…
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The Flying Zoo
The Blue Jay’s “flying zoo” includes “one flea, six species of lice, five types of ticks, and eight species of mites, in addition to being infected by nine kinds of flukes (trematodes), three tapeworms, one acanthocephalan (thorny-headed worm) and sixteen kinds of roundworms.” Michael Stock’s The Flying Zoo: Birds, Parasites and the World They Share…
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Tracks
A recent snowfall. All traces of it are now gone after a 60 degree Xmas Eve. But while it lasted, it was tracked up with all sorts of animal prints. In fact, I was amazed at the unseen but traceable activity in Green-Wood. A lot of Eastern Grey Squirrel and Common Raccoon. Big-foot Canada Geese…
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Winter’s Wrens
When I walked around and across Dartmoor some years ago, I heard wrens every day, often more than once. Yet I rarely saw one. These small, subtle (at least to the eye!) creatures, one of the most common bird species in England, are awfully good at keeping to close to the earth. Their name comes…
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Backyard and Beyond 