birding
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Fall birding
Northern parula, Parula americana, a species typically found at the top of trees. But this south-bound migrant was hungry, and was flitting around at eye-level in Prospect Park before it descended to wrangle with a caterpillar on the ground. An unleashed dog chased it away. The green mantle on the back is an excellent field…
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Community garden chick
On Saturday, we walked down to Red Hook, passing several community gardens on Columbia St. In one, we heard an incessant call in a tree. At first, we thought it was the female cardinal we were looking at, but she was just responding to this vocal youngster, clasping a branch right beneath the nest. This…
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Wren Revisions
One of my favorite scientific names has long been that of the winter wren: Troglodytes troglodytes. “Troglodyte” means cave-dweller. When the binomial system uses the same word for genus and species, it’s considered the purest manifestation of the genus; all other species within the genus are compared to it. It’s the wren’s wren, so to…
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Fulmars
In Arnarstapi harbor. I was introduced to the northern fulmar (Fulmarus glacialis) some years ago in the Scottish Highlands. They spend most of their decades-long lives at sea, but breed on far northern cliffs, of which there are many in Iceland. So they were a constant presence on our Iceland trip, a welcome return to…
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Oooh, oology
Hrafn and smyrill eggs. We saw several ravens, most notably two sporting above the cliffs at Vik i Myrdal. Perhaps they were Huginn and Muninn, Odin’s raven familiars, who served as his aides, Thought and Memory. We never saw a merlin, although others in our group did. The eggs above were from one of two…
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Club Dead
I didn’t get worked up about the killing of Prospect Park’s Canada geese. There are better ways of managing overpopulations of species that do too well in association with people, but otherwise I wasn’t particularly moved. I know other people were, to the extent of holding a vigil for the dead birds. But Canada geese…
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Snipe
Everywhere except Reykjavik, on both ends of our Icelandic trip, we had sightings of the common snipe (Gallinago gallinago). This species is not to be confused with the related Wilson’s snipe, which we have in Brooklyn, and which was considered the same species until recently, making the confusion understandable. Above each of the farms we…
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Icelandic birds
The omnipresent common redshank (Tringa totanus), seen and most definitely heard throughout the island. Black-legged kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla), at Arnarstapi. Two chicks are usual. Black guillermot (Cepphus grylle) in Husavik harbor. Common eider (Somateria mollissima) with ducklings. The most common duck seen; many young, but few adult males, who must have been in eclipse. Black-headed…
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Whimbrels
My sweetheart and I are back from a magnificent, spectacular, ten day trip around Iceland with a group from the American Littoral Society. Posts about the trip begin here, randomly, at Day Two: these pictures are from Gardar (my apologies to Icelanders for my being too hot and humid to try to find the eth…
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Islenska Fugla
Here’s a list of the birds of Iceland. I am especially looking forward to seeing haforn, falki, and, of couse, one of my favorites, hrafn.
Backyard and Beyond 