-
Raptor Wednesday
Sharpie! The little Accipiter, Sharp-shinned Hawk, Accipiter striatus.This was the bird who did not like our male American Kestrel back in the middle of February.But it wasn’t all sortie after sortie.This is a juvenile female. The males are substantially smaller: on average just a midge smaller than an American Kestrel, in fact. The one time…
-
Thryothorus ludovicianus
A pair of Carolina Wrens were exploring a slope in Green-Wood.No crevice went unexplored in the search for insects, eggs, and cocoons..
-
Mammal Monday
I haven’t seen one of these people in far too long. Marmota monax: groundhog, woodchuck, whistlepig, chuckling (when young).Oh, yeah, Rodentia: all in the teeth.
-
Make Your Own Metaphors
Turtle with a leech latched onto its…brain? Some people say the Senator from Oligarchy, Mitch McConnell, whose career is based on an infusion of foreign cash, looks like a turtle. I wouldn’t want to insult a turtle with that comparison. But the miserable old cynic sure acts like a leech on democracy… so there’s that.
-
Woodcock Madness
Originally posted on Backyard and Beyond: A few of the nine American Woodcock I saw on Thursday in Prospect Park. Or, in this one’s case:Outside the park. On Vanderbilt St. in Windsor Terrace. I herded this one off the street. A stalking cat gave me the side-eye for doing so.The bird landed in the only patch of…
-
Kestrel Mania, Part XXX
The American Kestrels were extremely busy yesterday morning. During Wednesday’s storm, I saw neither skin nor feather of them, as expected. But the male was out bright and early in the rich tones of dawn on Thursday. He soon flew over to the chimney, and several minutes later the female landed on the nearby roof…
-
Dawn Kestrel
Sunrise on the American Kestrel male this morning, a few minutes before he and the female mated on their favorite roof-top pipe.
-
Raptor Wednesday
An old Red-tailed Hawk nest being refurbished. Over a couple of weekends, I watched Red-tailed Hawks bringing new sticks to this nest.The last time I was watching, one hawk perched nearby.While this one did all the work. Unseen here are the Blue Jays buzzing the hawk as it scouted a nearby tree for nesting material.…
-
Mammal Monday
The front door.Looked too small for a backdoor, so let’s call it a window. (No mammals were woken up for these photos.]
-
American Kestrel Update
Tis the season for copulation.Note how the male’s talons are bunched up. He can’t, after all, grab hold of her back with those sharp claws. I noticed this in an Instragramer’s photo of mating Osprey recently, where the scale was rather larger but the principle the same. Bird mating is brief. The balancing act —…
-
Subscribe
Subscribed
Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
Backyard and Beyond 