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Mammal Monday
This European or Brown Hare (Lepus europaeus) was as big as most of the dogs in Göteborg. We were surprised to see it on a backstreet one evening. I think some of the locals were, too. The species has been expanding its range in Sweden.Red Squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris).Like our Eastern Greys, which have become invasive…
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Svenska fåglar
Större hackspett. Great Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopos major). That belly! Spotted in Göteborg’s Slottsskogen park.Sädesärla. White Wagtail (Motacilla alba). Spotted everywhere.Knipa. Common Goldeneye (Bucephala clangula). These are females, and if you look closely you’ll see they’re banded. They were in the zoo’s pond. Others were seen in Göteborg’s canals, as well as on lake Vänern.Bofink. Chaffinch…
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International Bird Migration Day
In Ruth Padel’s On Migration: Dangerous Journeys and the Living World, the Aeneid is offered as the great story of the present century: “the displaced man who has seen his city burn and has lost one identity forever must make a new home and new identity in an unknown land.” Padel’s book is a modern…
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Patterns
On a clear day, you can see Labrador from about 38,000 feet. On Monday, the place was still frozen. Our plane was somewhere near the Quebec border; of course, it may even have been Quebec. It’s hard to see most borders on the face of the earth. A meandering river, thawed in parts, with…
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No. Ro. Wi.
Rare to see a swallow perched. Yet Northern Rough-winged Swallows, they of the long name, seem to do it more than the Barn and Tree Swallows they were sharing the Sylvan Water’s insects with. Stelgidopteryx serripennis, scraper wing saw feather.
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Raptor Wednesday
We had to be away from the #BrooklynKestrels Lookout for a week. All the trees leafed out in our absence. Except for this bare branch sticking upright across the street. Yes! The wee falcons are still going strong. Yesterday morning around 8:30 the male announced his presence with swirling call. He had prey. The female…
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The Mossy Bits
A primer on moss reproduction to go with this photo of a sporophyte.
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House
Whose nest is this?Why, it’s Passer domesticus, of course. The House Sparrow. Usually stuffed into a hole in a building, or, better yet, a stop light pole, this tornado of dried grasses is generally invisible. House Sparrows are unrelated to the New World sparrows; sometimes they are called weaver finches, and looking at the woven…
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Bird Boxing
It’s a little late in the year for this, but I just found this book. It’s a very good place to start if you want to set up and maintain — stress on the maintain — bird homes for the next breeding season and the ones after that. Habitat, siting, building, monitoring, maintaining are all…
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Backyard and Beyond 