birding
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Golden Orange
The afternoon sun was going right through this Baltimore Oriole (Icterus galbula) and transforming into something rich and strange.
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Great-Tailed Grackles
The Great-tailed Grackle, a.k.a. the Mexican Grackle (Quiscalus mexicanus). Big, bold, noisy, communal roosters. The first time I met them was in San Antonio some years ago. They spent the night in the trees along the River Walk. I was pooped upon. That’ll learn me. This time I enjoyed them from an angle. In 1900,…
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Tern Profile
And now the terns are back in town. This is a Common Tern (Sterna hirundo) on the piers of Brooklyn Bridge Park recently. Forster’s and Least are other locally regular terns during migration and summer, although you usually need to go to the city’s further edges to see them.
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Baby Pigeons
I have been asked more than once if I have ever seen a baby pigeon. If I’m feeling snarky, I say “no, they reproduce via parthenogenesis.”Here’s a pigeon chick, to the right of the parent; it’s so young it can’t even hold itself upright yet. Here it’s being fed by one of the parents, both…
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Orioles Above
Brightening up the greenery and the airwaves in a greensward near you, Baltimore Orioles (Icterus galbula) are in town and nesting. Watch for them pulling at grasses and various fibers, like rope, for their woven nests.
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Two Sparrows
A Chipping Sparrow (Spizella passerina) in the grass, where you will usually find them before they flush in little darting flocks into the nearby trees.A White-throated Sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis), whose song enlivens the winter woods, is more likely found under cover, and rooting through the leaves. They breed to the north, mostly in Canada; there…
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Barn Swallows Wallowing
It’s rare to get a good solid look at a Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica), considering they zip through the air at great speed most of the time in pursuit of flying insects, but a pair were gathering mud recently for their nest.Barn Swallows build mud pellet cups; I watched one in process last year in…
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Wood Ducks
A birder named Ben mentioned he’d seen a Wood Duck with ducklings on the Upper Pool the day before, so we were on the lookout. A pair coasted on the water, but it was a single mom in the lily pads who emerged with seven ducklings (and, in fact, she gave the male of the…
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International Bird Migration Day
Magnolia Warbler male (Dendroica magnolia). An upstate NY and further north nester. Just passing through Brooklyn now … It’s International Bird Migration Day, which was developed to educate people about the transnational lives of birds. Right now, billions of individual birds are moving from Central and South America to North America, flowing from southern hemisphere…
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Look Up, Look Down, Look Out!
Come down a little closer, Scarlet Tanager! The bright morning sun is making your tail shine. Uh, yeah, like that, Piranga olivacea, male of.Meanwhile, in the grass, a male Bobolink (Dolichonyx oryzivorus). These are far more common in farm and prairie country than here in Brooklyn. I only saw my first a few years ago,…
Backyard and Beyond 