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Iridescent
A still can only capture one moment of the shifting iridescence of this Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos). But what a moment in the later afternoon sun!
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Same Sumac, Another Bird
“O my Starling, O my Starling….” Note the yellowing bill, a breeding sign for Sturnus vulgaris. Spring is in the air. Another Starling, a week later, in the glow of a setting Sun.
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Eagle Resurrection
Bald Eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) over Croton Point Park. Hugely perched in trees, wheeling in the air on their seven-feet wingspans, primary feathers sticking out like fingers, or powerfully, but not super-speedily, rowing through the air. I was reminded of the giant eagles in Tolkien, deus-ex-machina-ing over and over again to pull Hobbits and wizards out…
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Let’s Get Closer, Shall We?
The Inner Borough from the end of Pier 5 in Brooklyn Bridge Park. This is wide-angle, 24mm lens equivalent on the zoom, approaching fish-eye. The third large building in from the left, with the strong dark verticals, is 55 Water Water Street, an otherwise mediocre pile from the ruinous era of square-foot architecture.Zoomed in about…
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Winter’s Purple
On Brooklyn’s rocky southwestern coast… say what? This outwash plain should be sand all the way to the Continental Shelf, but there are places where we have piled up the boulders. The rip-rap along Shore Road Greenway, from Owl’s Head Park down under the Verrazano Narrows and beyond, for instance, is fine habitat in winter…
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To every thing there is a season
In memory of Pete Seeger, some photographs of the great Hudson River, which he campaigned to clean up, rather quixotically when he started in 1969, after more than a century of its being used as an industrial toilet. And some reflections. In Ullapool, Scotland, some years ago I went to a pub late in the…
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Mallard on Ice
A female Anas platyrhynchos. Underrated in comparison to the peacock-like male of the species.
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Weekend Birds, Ice, Sky
Northern Mockingbird (Mimus polyglots). This bird was quite territorial, chasing robins, sparrows, and me, making two passes overhead. Spring must be not too far away.Downy Woodpercker (Picoides pubescens). A rather subtle tapping alerted me to this one.Size comparison between Herring (Larus smithsonianus) and Ring-billed (Larus delawarensis). All of the above were in Brooklyn Bridge Park.Gratuitous:…
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Backyard and Beyond 