birding
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St John Birds I
Small islands are tight confines for birds, particularly when the mix of habitats (dry and moist forests, mangrove, salt pond, shoreline) on them is only a portion of the whole. There are just a handful of resident songbird species on St John. [See under: mongoose.] The ubiquitous Bananaquit is one:Its whistle songs enlivening mornings and…
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Winter Bright
House Finch, Carpodacus mexicanus, in Prospect Park. This is the colorful male; the female is drably stripy. The species is native to southwestern North America. The birds were sold on the East Coast by the pet trade as “Hollywood Finches” until dealing in wild songbirds was made illegal in 1940. Pet store owners, an appalling…
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Brooklyn’s Grasslands
You can’t see them in this picture, but there are thirty-five or so Horned Lark on the ground here at the northwestern corner of Floyd Bennett Field. One of the few open ground bird species on the East Coast, Eremophilia alpestris breeds at the tundra top of North America. The Lower 48 are their wintering…
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Two Habitats
1.) A Rufus Hummingbird has been hanging out by the entrance to the Rose Center for Earth and Space at the American Museum of Natural History. This species, Selasphorus rufus, is more generally found in the Northwest and West, so its continued presence in Manhattan since December has been cause for comment. The bird is…
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Avian Builders
Avian Architecture: How Birds Design, Engineer, and Build by (the puckishly named) Peter Goodfellow. So what don’t birds build their nests out of? Most of us are probably familiar with the grassy/twiggy cup nests built by a number of songbirds, some lined with moss, some reinforced with mud, like the classic, omnipresent American Robin nest.…
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Vinegar Hill
Wait a minute!Most of the bogus pigeon scarers are “owls,” as if any self-respecting owl would be hanging out in the middle of the day. This one was a raptor. A nice variation on the theme of useless bird flushers. Right across the street however, a sound in the trees where Vinegar Hill actually drops…
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Spotted Mystery
A storm-toppled tree in the Ravine in Prospect Park made a natural bridge for squirrels and chipmunks before it was sliced up. The horizontal trunk was also being used for a plucking station, as these remains attest. The main predators of birds in the park include other birds, raccoons (but mostly of nestlings), and cats.…
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Weekend Naturalist
Through the Naturalists’ Gate at 77th Street, past the enormous head of the great geographer Alexander von and under the eagle eye of this AMNH topper I entered the Central Park and rambled in the Ramble in search of the barred owl that had been reported yesterday. The owl remained with Minerva, although the local…
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New Mexico
A trip to Santa Fe, New Mexico, last week was not, needless to say, without a bit of nature. I explored the Randall Davey Audubon Center, and the Nature Conservancy’s Santa Fe Canyon Preserve, adjacent properties both an hour-long walk from the Plaza, the center of town. A mule deer — check out those big…
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Barge Music
Ten Barn Swallows (Hirundo rustica) perching on the hull of Bargemusic at Fulton Ferry Landing on a recent morning. The swallows patrol Brooklyn Bridge Park and the Promenade above for insects caught in mid-air. They should be heading south in about a month or two.
Backyard and Beyond 