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Fifteen Doves
There are a few collective nouns for a group of Mourning Doves (Zenaida macroura): bevy, cote, dole/dule. Wouldn’t “cortege” be appropriate? And while we’re on the subject, what is the name for a group of collective nouns? A thesaurus of collective nouns? An obscurity? A venary?
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It’s out there
Like the truth…. Buried in the soil. Tucked underneath bark. In rotting wood. Encased in mud. Coiled in buds. Massed right out there in the open like in this mantid egg case. Can’t you hear it? The roar of life to come? Spring? Summer?
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Raptor Wednesday
A Merlin (Falco columbarius) at Croton Point. On a recent excursion, the peninsula was largely iced-in on the water side and covered in snow on the land. As a result, Bald Eagles were few and far between: we had only nine sightings (we’re getting spoiled). There was also a dearth of Red-tails: just one one…
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Learning from Thoreau
Originally posted on Backyard and Beyond: Henry David Thoreau didn’t particularly like cities, including New York, all that much. “The pigs in the street are the most respectable part of the population,”he wrote while visiting in 1843. Thoreau was a country mouse at heart, not a city rat. He was neither the first nor the last…
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The Red-Orange and the Black-Purple
Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) Common Grackle (Quiscalus quiscula)
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Ending The Endless War
Last year was the the hottest year since modern record keeping began in 1880, capping all the other recent record-breakers. And it’s NOT going to get better. If you were born in 1985 or after, you’ve never experienced a year in which the global temperature has been below the 20th-century average. And then there’s methane.…
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Ruddy, Ruddy
Many ducks sport their breeding plumage over the winter, but the Ruddy Ducks don’t start turning until… about now. This male should have an astonishingly light, electric blue bill and much warmer cinnamon-brown plumage in a month or so.A female. She won’t get all peacocky. Ruddy ducks often have their stiff tails raised as here…
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Raptor Wednesday
What you don’t see here are the Blue Jays (Cyanocitta cristata) that were buzzing this Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis). I may have inadvertently flushed the hawk from some prey on the ground on the hill below me, since when it first landed it looked like it was stretching a piece of flesh between talon and…
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