birding
-
Raptor Wednesday
A Red-tailed Hawk in Green-Wood. I was on a ridge, so the bird was only a little above eye-level.
-
Ol’ Blue Eyes
Phalacrocorax auritus, the Double-crested Cormorant, with reflections of cherry trees in torrid bloom in the water.
-
May Day
Amidst clusters of purple Viola in Green-Wood, a lone blue. Variation? Different species? A Spring Azure (Celastrina ladon): the azure is on the inside.Eastern Phoebe (Sayornis phoebe) paints the sky blue. A Spring Beauty (Claytonia virginica) in the Great Swamp brings us back to the pinkish.
-
Raptor Wednesday
A field trip to Great Swamp NWR was a field day for raptors. There were several road-side Red-tailed along the way as well as inside the NWR’s bounds. A pair of soaring birds turned out to be a Sharp-shinned and a Broad-winged. We saw a Merlin and a Kestrel. Two birds that were probably a…
-
Raptor Wednesday
The triumvirate:Red-tailed Hawk in Green-Wood.Cooper’s at Floyd Bennett Field. American Kestrel atop the Green-Wood gate. That’s a lightning rod next to this lightning bolt of a bird.
-
Raptor Wednesday
The patience of a Merlin (Falco columbarius).And its knowledge of our presence.We walked the wide way around this Ginkgo biloba of a perch in Green-Wood to get this front view.
-
Chuck-will’s-widow
Naturalist Gabriel Willow, whom I explored Monhegan Island and other parts of Maine with last year, spotted a Chuck-will’s-widow in Bryant Park yesterday. This Midtown Manhattan park is a remarkable migrant trap, but this was pretty unusual, so word quickly spread. I managed to get to the park around 3:00, where, amid the dozens of…
-
Building
A Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata) shapes a growing nest with its body. “Its” because this could be either male or female, as both work on the nest. Cornell’s All About Birds does say that on average males do more gathering of nesting materials and females more actual nest-building. Note the ribbon: our cast-offs are finding…
Backyard and Beyond 