birding
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Snow Day
The other day, the news was this was, so far, the 9th snowiest winter in NYC. (We’re number nine, we’re number nine!) I have to admit most of it has fallen while I’ve been inside. But yesterday I took a walk thinking I would avoid the snow and ended up walking amidst it. Except for…
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Snowbird
It hasn’t been a big year for Slate-colored Dark-eyed Juncos (Junco hyemalis), a generally common winter visitor. This was the only one around the other day and I haven’t seen many this winter. They are are usually found close to the ground in small flocks, so this view gives a good sense of the very…
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Iridescent
A still can only capture one moment of the shifting iridescence of this Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos). But what a moment in the later afternoon sun!
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Same Sumac, Another Bird
“O my Starling, O my Starling….” Note the yellowing bill, a breeding sign for Sturnus vulgaris. Spring is in the air. Another Starling, a week later, in the glow of a setting Sun.
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Eagle Resurrection
Bald Eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) over Croton Point Park. Hugely perched in trees, wheeling in the air on their seven-feet wingspans, primary feathers sticking out like fingers, or powerfully, but not super-speedily, rowing through the air. I was reminded of the giant eagles in Tolkien, deus-ex-machina-ing over and over again to pull Hobbits and wizards out…
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Let’s Get Closer, Shall We?
The Inner Borough from the end of Pier 5 in Brooklyn Bridge Park. This is wide-angle, 24mm lens equivalent on the zoom, approaching fish-eye. The third large building in from the left, with the strong dark verticals, is 55 Water Water Street, an otherwise mediocre pile from the ruinous era of square-foot architecture.Zoomed in about…
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Winter’s Purple
On Brooklyn’s rocky southwestern coast… say what? This outwash plain should be sand all the way to the Continental Shelf, but there are places where we have piled up the boulders. The rip-rap along Shore Road Greenway, from Owl’s Head Park down under the Verrazano Narrows and beyond, for instance, is fine habitat in winter…
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Mallard on Ice
A female Anas platyrhynchos. Underrated in comparison to the peacock-like male of the species.
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Weekend Birds, Ice, Sky
Northern Mockingbird (Mimus polyglots). This bird was quite territorial, chasing robins, sparrows, and me, making two passes overhead. Spring must be not too far away.Downy Woodpercker (Picoides pubescens). A rather subtle tapping alerted me to this one.Size comparison between Herring (Larus smithsonianus) and Ring-billed (Larus delawarensis). All of the above were in Brooklyn Bridge Park.Gratuitous:…
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Breakaway Scaup
May I present to you with a male Greater Scaup (Aythya marila)? These birds are found off Brooklyn’s shore, particularly in Gravesend and Dead Horse Bays, during winter. Over seventeen thousand were counted in DHB last Monday during a coastal survey. Now, that is a raft of ducks. But this male was all by himself,…
Backyard and Beyond 