birding
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Owling
Did you see this essay on owl etiquette? Food for thought, before you spit up the bones and fur. Personally, I wouldn’t announce an owl location on social media, but I very much like his point that owls are excellent ambassadors for recruits for friends of the wild. Because the planet has enough enemies already.…
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Raptor Wednesday
This fire escape is about one third of the way down the block. In the mornings, Mourning Doves, Starlings, and House Sparrows are wont to huddle here to catch the warming rays of the sun, sheltered from the predominately western wind. When this male American Kestrel appears, everybody else flees. I’ve spotted him up here…
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Waterfowl Counting
Four of us braved the element of a cold NNW wind coming off the bay to count waterfowl for an annual NYSOA survey. We were assigned to two segments of the Brooklyn waterfront, Bush Terminal Park and the Brooklyn Army Terminal pier. The latter was quiet; large bays on either side of the pier had…
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The Fields of Sweetgum
Just a part of one of the large spreads of fallen Sweetgum balls I’ve ever come across recently. Not pictured here are the Dark-eyed Juncos that were taking advantage of the windfall. The tiny Liquidambar styraciflua seeds are a big source of winter food for birds.
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Sturnus vulgaris
When Pluto was “demoted” as a planet I was taken aback by the reaction. It was like people had lost an invisible childhood friend. But science changes, refines, and, yes, overturns old verities, and this is process is much more interesting to me than a sentimental connection to something learned in childhood. Contra that guy…
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Raptor Wednesday
Looking northwest-ishly from the View From The Moraine towards Governor’s Island, we see two brick smokestacks rising from the plains of Industry City. They are that massive facility’s power plant’s exhaust funnels. The taller one works: steam (and what else?) rises from it night and day, except sometimes not on weekends. I’ve often wondered if…
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Mimus polyglottos
And who hasn’t felt the side-eye of a Northern Mockingbird greedily claiming all the little pears of winter? Different day, same patch. A different tree this time: those red linden branchlets! Same bird? In this case, it was much colder so there some puffed-up feather action here. Great insulation, feathers. I wore down myself yesterday.
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The Year in Raptors
Suddenly, every local Rock Dove and Starling is in the air. They swirl this way and that, creating visual confusion: which way do your eyes go? Then just as suddenly, the long tail of a Cooper’s Hawk concentrates the eye in the airborne melee. The Accipiter is hunting, surfing over the tops of buildings, jetting…
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Drake Gadwall
Winter means ducks and their allies bobbing and diving offshore. The little blubber-bombs shrug off the cold, cold water. A recent trip to wind-ripped Bush Terminal Park revealed Brant, Mallard, American Black Duck, American Wigeon, Red-breasted Merganser, Bufflehead, Red-throated Loon, and Gadwall in the bays. You need to get a close view of the latter,…
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Whose Woods These Are
I think I know.The winter woodpeckers are out there. Red-bellied Woodpeckers, as above, and Downy Woodpeckers are our regulars. A few Hairy Woodpeckers and Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers keep us honest. And yet… The indispensable Monbiot on not knowing what we’re losing. A must read. Here, if you really want to wallow, are some things I’ve written…
Backyard and Beyond 