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Go Forth This Fourth
There have been, on occasion, squawks of outrage in the comments here by people upset that I bring politics into the mix along with pretty pictures of nature. How anyone can separate the two is beyond my understanding. This is the Anthropocene: humans are geosystem engineers on an unprecedented level, transforming the planet as we…
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The Perch List
This bare knob of an upright branch at the top of an otherwise leafy London Plane has been the #BrooklynKestrels’ spot for months now. Both male and female have perched here half the year.On occasions, other birds have been spotted on it, too. Starlings and Mourning Doves are somewhat regular. A Sharp-shinned Hawk was quite…
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Mammal Monday
Ondatra zibethicus: muskrat! As busy as the proverbial beaver.Thoreau reveled in calling them “musquash.” (See Geoff Wisner’s collection of HDT on animals.) Stop me if you’ve heard this one: Senator Susan Collins says the President has assured her he won’t be asking his Supreme Court candidates about Roe v. Wade. Two things: 1) Trump’s record…
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Olof Rudbeck
Some plates from den svenska ornitologins fader. Olof Rudbeck the Younger (1660-1740), sometimes Latinized as Olaus Rudbeckius junior, is considered the father of Swedish ornithology. He was also one of Linnaeus’s teachers (whence Rudbeckia). While visiting Sverige recently, I was gifted a sumptuous reprint of Rudbeck d.y.’s Svenska fâglar. It’s a wondrous tome; I’m struggling…
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Manhattan Kestrels
The Wild Bird Fund animal rescue center in Manhattan tweeted out a picture this week of the eight fledgling American Kestrels they have in-house (!). Most were evidently found on the little island itself. I can’t say whether or not any came from the three nests I’m aware of, one which is in Manhattan. Our…
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Train
Ardea alba, the Great Egret.These long breeding plumes, known as aigrettes, were one prized by the fashion industry. (An industry as ugly in the 1890s as it is now.) Great Egrets were slaughtered wantonly for their feathers; since these feathers are breeding plumage, the birds would be shot during breeding season, condemning the next generation…
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Asclepias
Butterfly weed (A. tuberosa). My favorite.Purple (A. purpurascens). Other people’s favorite. “It would be naive to depend on the Supreme Court to defend the rights of poor people, women, people of color, dissenters of all kinds. Those rights only come alive when citizens organize, protest, demonstrate, strike, boycott, rebel, and violate the law in order…
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Infamy
Yesterday’s Supreme Court decision on a Muslim travel ban was a truly horrible day for our nation. So was the decision to allow continued lying at fake women’s health centers. Kennedy warned of authoritarianism in the latter, but said we’ll have to trust Trump on the former! I know these Republican injustices weren’t put there…
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The Class of 2018
The nation might be on the cusp of something horrible, but we’ve still got American Kestrels across the street, so full falcon ahead! It looks like there are two females (one is above) and one male in this year’s fledglings from the bodega nest down the corner.All the festooning paraphernalia of Brooklyn’s rooftops…As always, clicking…
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One Guess
The American Kestrel puppies are flying fast and furiously around the city. On Sunday, at least one had fledged successfully from the Park Slope cornice. He’s on the roof right above his natal cavity. There was a male in the ailanthus in the backyard as well. Not sure if it was the same one. Yes,…
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Backyard and Beyond 