birding
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Avian Rarities
Coney Island’s Grey-headed Gull, which has made the big time, reminds me of some other rarities that have shown up in NYC in the last few years: Boreal Owl ~ 1/05 Central Park (Origin: Northern Canada)* Western Reef Heron ~ 7/07 Calvert Vaux Park (Africa)** Scott’s Oriole ~ 1/08 Union Square (Western U.S.) Black Swan…
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Twitching: Grey-headed Gull
A Grey-headed Gull (Chroicocephalus cirrocephalus), native to the South America and Africa, has been spotted on Coney Island. Where else? It’s been there several days now, often hanging out in front of the WonderWheel and living on the castoff of beach-goers. This may be only the second confirmed sighting in the U.S. As a result,…
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Jamaica Bay Update
Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) and Mute Swan (Cygnus olor) on the East Pond at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge.Through the blind at Big John’s Pond: Black-Crowned Night Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax, a juvenile), Glosy Ibis (Plegadis falcinellus), and Green Heron (Butorides virescens). Three Wood Ducks (Aix sponsa) were in there as well, but not visible here.…
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Last of the Curlews?
The last, the very last, Passenger Pigeon died in captivity (1914). So did the last Carolina Parakeet (1918). The last Heath Hen, named Booming Ben, died in the preserve set aside for the species on Martha’s Vineyard (1932).But we don’t know where or when (or even if) the last Eskimo Curlew died. The species, Numenius…
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Sparrow ID
Unaccountably without my bins, I snapped this with my camera’s zoom feature. That’s feature, not actually a zoom lens, unfortunately. Sure, it’s starting to look like it came out of Blow-Up, 1966, highlighting the unreliability of all representation. But, you will pay particular attention to the shortness of the tail. And could you convince yourself…
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Systems of change
“[…] it is often not easy to assign insects to precise categories because there are so many species and their morphological, behavioral, and genetic differences frequently tend to overlap or intergrade. Often the best we can do is estimate degrees of relationship and/or distinctness and assign them to hypothetical groups as information becomes available. As…
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JBWR 4th
I couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate Interdependence Day than going out to Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge. A warm, foggy morning developed into a hot sunny afternoon.There are three visible osprey platforms at JBWR. One is right on the highway. This one is the closest to the West Pond path. Two of these…
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Fallout
The lighthouse keeper on Machias Seal Island — kept there by the Canadian Coast Guard to make sure the little island, claimed by both Canada and the US, stays Canadian, O Canada… but I digress — the lighthouse keeper took this sequence of photos on the night of May 24 this year. Bad weather caused…
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Harriman State Park
(Or, Catskills Day 2, Part II) On the way back we stopped off at Silvermine Lake in Harriman State Park. The mountain laurel, Kalmia latifolia, was in bloom. Barn swallows were swooshing all around, and nesting on one of the park structures.We walked along a trail on the south side of the lake. A snake…
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The Catskills ~ Day I
Four of us journeyed up to the Catskills this past weekend, daring the iffy, drippy weather. (Considering it was close to 100 degrees in NYC last week, we enjoyed a 50-degree drop going up there.) On the way up, we stopped at the RamsHorn-Livingstone Sanctuary in the town of Catskill. At this Scienic Hudson/NYAudubon administered…
Backyard and Beyond 