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Whose Woods?
In Sweden, the woods belong to the red wood ants (Formica). They build large mounds, are essential forest managers, and aren’t afraid of taking on bigger critters.A young Kopparödla or Slowworm (Anguis fragilis) is being taken down. (Movie) Duncan takes a closer look at one of the mounds. This was the last we saw of…
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Swedish Snapshots
Such beauty in the world! And such baseness! There was good news from Ireland this week, when one of the misogynist whips of what was once the state church was tossed aside, yet the U.S. still suffers under the brute nastiness of the Orange Demagogue. The American gestapo is wrenching children from their parents…
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Tree Swallows
Tachycineta bicolor. The problem is staying on. Remember how the male American Kestrel bunched up his claws so not to dig into his partner’s back? Here, the male bites some head feathers. Ouch!
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Even More Swedish Birds
Ladusvala. (Barn) Swallow (Hirundo rustica).This is most common species of swallow in the world. The European subspecies H. rustica rustica is very much less rufus underneath than the New World H. rustica rythrogaster and has a longer tail.Here’s another profile that should look familiar.The Eurasian Nuthatch (Sitta europaea).Nötväcka.Whooper Swans at distance, through a window just…
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Raptor Wednesday
The male of the #BrooklynKestrels pair is stashing prey in a rotted-out knot in his favorite perching tree. This photo is through the screen, rain, and foliage. But with those two little songbird feet sticking up like an amateur gangland corpse disposal, you get the drift. Have seen a few bodies cached here since discovering…
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Forecast: Birds
A very few of the birds noted on recent trips to Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, Central Park, and Green-Wood Cemetery:Exploration of nest box at Jamaica Bay’s West Pond. Troglodytes aedon. And then suddenly there were three of these bubbly-voiced House Wrens zooming about. But don’t fall for the small-is-cute thing. I reported this collar. Waiting…
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B.B. Cuckoo
The Black-billed Cuckoo is relatively elusive, which is surprising for such a long-tailed creature. “Sluggish and secretive” says Cornell’s All About Birds about Coccyzus erythropthalmus. I was surprised on Friday when a popped into eye-level view at Brooklyn Bridge Park. I see the Yellow-billed (C. americanus) more often — and that isn’t that often. Both…
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Weekend Kestrels
The female is rarely seen these days. She emerges from the cornice nest and flies up to the London Plane on 41st Street to take food bought up by her mate. Here she briefly perches on the avenue London Plane.It gets gory from here… The male with prey in the fog.An hour later, the fog…
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Backyard and Beyond 