birding
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Sumac Robin
10* yesterday. This is one of four American Robins who were scouring the Sumac berries. Not all Robins head south for the winter. These could also be birds from further north, this their south. Wintering Robins tend to flock and change their dietary habits, since there are few earthworms to be had now.
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Hoodies
Drake Hooded Merganser, (Lophodytes cucullatus).The hen. Both sexes can extend their feathers into a top-heavy-looking “hooded” crest.Although this day, only the two males were doing so. Keeping up appearances.
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Hawking Around
Just before the storm, a friend who lives in Manhattan’s Chinatown sent me this phone picture of a raptor she saw on a playground on the edge of the Al Smith Houses. She wanted to know what it was. When I first started to bird-watch, I found the raptors a challenge. Still do. Some are…
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Kestrel
American Kestrel (Falco sparverius) doing its hovering-hunting over grasslands. They face the wind, flare their tails, and stiffly beat their wings to hang still as they scan the ground below for movement or signs of prey. Remarkable to see. Especially when a NYPD helicopter is doing something similar nearby. Long-shot… like this raptor’s every drop…
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King Eider
Snowy Owls aren’t our only Arctic visitors. This is a male, or drake, King Eider (Somateria spectabilis). I saw my first ever earlier this month, when, after the Brooklyn CBC, we all hurried over to Beach 59th St. on the Rockaways. The other day another was spotted off Fort Tilden. This time I had my…
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Cooper’s
Cooper’s Hawk (Accipiter cooperii) in Prospect. The red-orange eyes are a mark of a mature bird; juvenile birds have yellowish eyes. This accipiter, or forest hawk, is named after William Cooper, one of the founders of the New York Academy of Sciences; the species was named and first described by the naturalist Charles Lucien Bonaparte…
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Silhouette Bird
A silhouette on a hazy day… a bird on the head of all-seeing Justice atop Brooklyn Borough Hall. My first thought: probably a pigeon, yet this looked too upright for that. My view from below on the street could account for that angle, of course, but there were, notably, no other pigeons in evidence. Ah-ha,…
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Xmas with the Owls
Some more pics, from the Snowy Owl Irruption of 2013-14. We may never see this many Snowy Owls again in Brooklyn (and throughout the NE and into the Great Lakes Midwest). While a bonanza for us, this massive irruption isn’t necessarily good for the birds. These are mostly juvenile birds, and juveniles of any species…
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Xmas with the Owls
In this extreme telephoto, the little white blob is a Snowy Owl. From a distance, they look rather like white plastic bags in the grasslands, not an uncommon sight, unfortunately. These two bipeds have walked up to within feet of the animal, which was on the edge of the runway. The bird was either incredibly…
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Xmas with the Owls
The amazing yellow eyes are fixed in bone rings, meaning the bird must move its head to see in different directions. The result is a remarkable 270-degree twisting of the neck to scan the surroundings. The lemon yellow is said to act like a filter to block the bright glare of sun off of snow.Note…
Backyard and Beyond 