This female American Kestrel is pretty much the boss of the territory around the Old Chapel in Green-Wood. This male likes the Green-Wood corner of 36th and 5th. About ten blocks separate them. Recently, I saw a second male near the Chapel. Speaking of territory. I noticed the two crows from some distance away, then…

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One of a pair of Common Ravens/Corvus corax circling. Nine days earlier, fit them both in the viewfinder.

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I’ve seen a good number of dead birds over the years, and I’m almost always surprised by how difficult I find it to identify their scraggly-miserable corpses. I took a look at this bill on Plumb Beach and thought…tern? But in December? Pink feet and a wide black band on the tail also pushed this…

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Long-tailed Ducks/Clangula hyemalis off the Rockaway Peninsula. It’s the male who has the long tail: This is the duck formerly known as the Oldsquaw. The AOU formally changed the name in 2000. Very much a diving duck.

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In metal, etc., attached to fence by antenna. Artist unknown. (Typing “metal butterfly art” into ye olde search engine resulted in some gawd-awful stuff, but I like this.)

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Not a single Tufted Titmouse was seen in Brooklyn during the day of the 2023 Christmas Bird Count. There was at least one spotted during the week surrounding the CBC, though, and I saw this one, in Green-Wood, a couple of weeks beforehand.

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Knobbed Whelk/Busycon carica and Channeled Whelk/Busycotypus canaliculatus side-by-side. I usually see more Channeled around here, but Recently at Jacob Riis Beach, the Knobbed predominated.

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New Year’s Day began with a Peregrine atop Mike’s Spike. Photographed here from two long avenues and two typical street blocks away.Then I looked again and saw a smaller falcon up there, likely an American Kestrel but possibly a Merlin. On the way to Staten Island, I spotted a Peregrine on the Verrazano Narrows Bridge,…

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Here’s one. Here’s two. Both in the same tree: Happy New Year! Another pass: this time I got those searchlight eyes on me.

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