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Monday Kestrels, Of Course
Portrait of an American Kestrel.This is the male of the local pair. He’s missing a ragged chunk of feathers from his breast. Molting? Wear and tear? He’s always been a fierce gnawer when he grooms his front; he has frequently looked double-breasted, with cleavage, for want of a better word, right down the middle. This…
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More Baby Kestrels
You’re darn right there are more baby Ks! Let’s start with more pictures of the 5th Avenue birds, taken on Thursday, two days after the images posted yesterday.The bird on the right, clearly more mature, kept an eye on the south-bound B63 bus as it rumbled to a stop below. I don’t know if there…
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Baby Kestrels All Over
The sound was like the alarm sounds the kestrels make when there’s a crow or hawk in the ‘hood, the high, fast, cycling sound, only it continued for a much longer period. I heard it consistently for half an hour, and on and off for a good two hours in total. By the time I…
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We Interrupt This Blog
I accidentally launched two blog posts yesterday morning. The times are out of joint. So: here’s a break down of the lies perpetuated by the Republicans about their concentration camps for children. There were more than a dozen contradictory statements by Trump and officials in the last week, including my favorite from the Orange Shitstain…
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Glossy Ibis
The first time I saw a Glossy Ibis was in Jamaica Bay. I didn’t even know we even had ibis in the Americas. There are actually three species found in the U.S. The Glossy, Plegadis falcinellus, gets up as far as southern coastal Maine during the breeding season. The White-faced is a prairie states breeder…
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Raptor Wednesday
It’s been a while since I’ve had a close encounter with any raptor other than my neighbors the #BrooklynKestrels. On Sunday I walked into this. A Red-tailed Hawk, who had probably bathed earlier and was now grooming, perched fairly low in a dogwood. And nobody was happy about it but me. A pair of Baltimore…
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Bluets & Forktails
Azure Bluet (Enallagma aspersum) male.Familiar Bluet (Enallagma civile) male. Familiar Bluet female, one of three color forms for this species. When odonating, you will quickly see that it’s males who patrol the water. Females are often munching away elsewhere, and come down to the water to pair up and lay their eggs in the wet…
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Be the Turtle You Want To Be
Snapping Turtle Chelydra serpentina. The females are making their way ashore now to lay eggs. Some will walk a long way, unfortunately attempting to cross roads, so keep an eye out if you’re driving.The clouds were turning on and off the sun. I’d say this was a medium-large sized specimen. I’ve seen larger ones, true,…
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Baby Kestrel(s)!
BREAKING NEWS: far too many humans are horrible Republicans, excuse the redundancy, but that’s not news. What’s news is I caught a glimpse of a near-fledgling American Kestrel in the corner cornice this afternoon!Looks like a male with those spots. He pulled this ribbon, some leftover from the previous (Starling, methinks) occupants of this cornice,…
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Backyard and Beyond 