birding
-
Nesting
I’m sure you can recognize these common nesting birds in Brooklyn right now. Meanwhile, our under-bridge pigeon nest is proceeding apace:
-
Snow Goose
A Snow Goose (Chen caerulescens) was on Prospect Lake today. They are not uncommon in Jamaica Bay during the winter months, but don’t visit interior Brooklyn very often. Among the most abundant waterfowl on the continent, Snow Geese are often seen in huge numbers on fallow fields and wetlands.
-
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
Yowza! Kinda gobsmacking, the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher. Tyrannus forficatus is a backyard bird in Texas.We saw them every day. They’re the state bird of Oklahoma, too, where my mother was born. See it on the OK quarter. The males have longer tails, and more intense coloring. Look for the orange underwings. And those salmon flanks!The tail…
-
Bill Strategies
Black Skimmer (Rynchops niger) with Laughing Gulls (Leucophaeus atricilla).American Avocet (Recurvirostra americana).Marbled Godwit (Limosa fedoa).Roseate Spoonbill (Ajaja ajaja).Reddish Egret (Egretta rufescens) and Black-necked Stilt (Himantopus mexicanus).Wait for it…Long-billed Curlew (Numenius americanus).Some of the birds at an afternoon’s stop at the Hans & Pat Suter Wildllife Refugue in Corpus Christi.You know you can subscribe to these…
-
Brooklyn Update
When my plane descended into LaGuardia last Monday, there were a lot of gray/brown still-wintering trees in evidence. I’d just come from southern-most Texas, where spring was fully in motion, but things are stirring here, too.Question Mark (Polygonia interrogationis) amid the weeping cherries, which were throbbing with honeybees, and an occasional bumble.The nacreous heart of…
-
Owl in the Hole
Twilight. We were in Bentsen State Park, looking for Elf Owls (Micrathene whitneyi). These are our smallest owls, 1.4oz (compare with House Sparrow, .98oz, and Great Horned Owl, 3.1lb). There was a nest in a snag, perhaps originally carved out by a woodpecker. An owl was periodically poking out as the sun set. “Owl in…
-
Rio Grande Valley
A Tricolor Heron (Egretta tricolor) prowling the Laguna Madre off Padre Island. I’ve returned from more than a week in south Texas and I have many pictures to sort though. Stay tuned for news of the 68 new-to-me bird species I saw and other excitements.Great-tailed Grackle (Quiscalus mexicanus, omnipresent throughout the trip.
-
Turkey
Do you know how many times I’ve kept my eye out for this semi-wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) in Battery Park over the years? She has bee there for some time now — their mini-farm is even roughly turkey-shaped — but this is the first I’ve ever run across her. You’d think, considering the size the…
-
Portrait
A female Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus). An example of one of the most extreme sexual differences found among species in our area.
-
Zygodactylism
That tap-tap-tapping coming from the Phragmites is usually a Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescens). Note those long toenail claws. Woodpeckers have zygodactyl toes, two pointing forward, two back. Most birds, the Passerines, or song birds, have three forward, one back.
Backyard and Beyond 