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Lizards!
Two sightings of Northern Italian Fence Lizards in Green-Wood this summer. I first became aware of this introduced species when a picture of an American Kestrel carrying one of the lizards made the rounds of the birding crowd years ago. The lizards seem to have gotten here via the animal slave — oh, sorry, I…
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American Chestnut
Some earlier writing about American chestnuts in Prospect Park. *** Just in from the science desk: Zebra Finches dream very much like mammals. Like us. The authors extrapolate to song birds in general. They hypothesize that such shared characteristics are a result of our shared early ancestry.
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D-Birds
It’s 2019, and we are still building glass towers that winnow birds from the sky during migration. An architect today who isn’t demanding that bird safe glass be used is committing malpractice. The developers — well, there’s an enemy of the earth if there ever was one, committing ecocide, crimes against life, as a matter…
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Raptor Wednesday
I recently found out that a pair of Cooper’s Hawks nested in Prospect Park this year. That never happens… these Accipiters usually head elsewhere during breeding after hunting in the city during the winter. I did see a pair of American Kestrels chase a Cooper’s into Green-Wood during the summer of ’18, but this year…
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Chrysalis
September 17th. I noticed this chrysalis hanging by silken threads in the doorway of a mausoleum. I thought it was Eastern Tiger Swallowtail. September 18th. Parenthetical: there was a spider right next door. September 21st. I don’t know what’s going here. Breached by something? October 5th. “For the first time, the wealthiest Americans paid a…
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The Morning Sun
Saturday dawned at 49F, the coldest day since some time back in the early spring. A small huddle of Palm Warblers were exploring Bush Terminal Park with me. A couple of hours later, I spotted this White-crowned Sparrow in Green-Wood. Earlier, when I entered G-W around 9:30, it was still cool but the sun was…
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Colonial Sea Birds Feeling the Heat
Warmer oceans=fewer fish=starving birds. This is a report from Alaska, where it’s been a bad year for North Pacific pelagics. Nine years ago when I was Iceland, we went to a famed Atlantic Puffin nesting site. But it had been abandoned since the last time this tour group was there. Some locals we ran into…
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Bees &
Eastern Carpenter Bees “robbing” nectaries. Instead of crawling up into the tubular flowers and getting smeared with pollen, these two are cutting directly to the chase. The facts have come flying in the last week, but this we know: the President of the U.S. has been soliciting foreign states to investigate his political rivals. On…
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Butterfly Reprise
What a year for butterflies! All these were seen in the last two weeks. I’ve now seen 28 species in Kings County, according to iNaturalist. Plus one skipper, oh those bedeviling skippers, only identified to genus level. I meant to post this yesterday, but I screwed up the scheduling. It was 94F on Wednesday and…
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Nighthawk Wednesday
Not quite Raptor Wednesday, but a good excuse to explore the nighthawks. They are not raptors, but their physical similarity in flight to hawks, specifically falcons, at dusk and dawn gives them their name. Perched, they look nothing like raptors. And perched is where you will find them during the day, if you find them.…
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Backyard and Beyond 