birds
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Sea duck washed ashore
A female Common eider, Somateria mollissima, dead on the beach, one of several in a mile or two of walking. These eiders are found close off-shore of Nantucket Island through the winter. The males of this large sea duck species are boldly patterned in black and white. Eiders are the source of eiderdown, soft inner…
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Behind the scenes at AMNH
I will most likely never see the great majority of the planet’s 10,000 plus bird species, but I’m fine with that, since I’m not a competitive birder. I am, however, not happy about missing those species native to the East Coast that were exterminated long before I showed up: heath hen, Carolina parakeet, passenger pigeon.…
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Trio of Bird Projects
If you don’t hear crows in Brooklyn almost every day, you haven’t been listening carefully enough. This project, Birds of Brooklyn wants you to listen closely, too. Look up at Myrtle & St. Edwards and Myrtle & Carleton for Myrtle Avenue Bird Town. Compared to the butt-ugly highrises recently erected on Myrtle, these bird houses…
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In Green-Wood
I have a confession to make: I’ve been cheating on Prospect Park. Yes, yes, I know, I know — how could I? Olmsted & Vaux & Stranahan’s great park, which beats the knickers off Central, is so lovely and sweet, but I guess Man isn’t made to be park-monogamous. It’s not like I feel good…
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What a pair
A friend sent me this picture of birds this morning and it took a couple of minutes for me to figure out what they were. I’ve never seen them in the feather. They’re Europan Blue tits, Cyanistes caeruleus (formerly Parus caeruleus). The photo was taken in Sweden, where even the birds have a strong social…
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Prospect Park Colors
The other day, I went looking for the Vesper sparrows that had been reported in the park. Fenced-in sections in the southern end of the Long Meadow, the area converted into the Ball Fields by Robert Moses, are providing excellent habitat for sparrows these days. The grasses are going to seed and there are still…
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Prothonotary
A protonotary warbler (Protonotaria citrea) has been hanging out with the lions in front of the New York Public Library’s main building at 42nd Street for the last couple of days. Paparazzi and police lines… no, just kidding, but those photographers sure are sorta-kinda like hunters, aren’t they, trying to “bag” their bird? When I…
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Confusing Fall Warbler
Roger Tory Peterson, the Bronx’s great contribution to ornithology, has a couple of famous-in-the-field pages in his field guide called “Confusing Fall Warblers, etc.” On their way south, the warblers have left their breeding plumage behind them, so they are not nearly as dramatic as in the spring. Juvenile birds, born this spring and summer,…
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Fall birding
Northern parula, Parula americana, a species typically found at the top of trees. But this south-bound migrant was hungry, and was flitting around at eye-level in Prospect Park before it descended to wrangle with a caterpillar on the ground. An unleashed dog chased it away. The green mantle on the back is an excellent field…
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Death on the rocks
The coast of Cape Ann, Massachusetts: at Pigeon Cove earlier this month, I came across a dead juvenile northern gannet on the rocks. There was a fishing lure lodged in the bird’s mouth. Now, this is only circumstantial evidence for the cause of death, but it’s pretty damn strong circumstantial evidence. Northern gannets, Morus bassanus,…
Backyard and Beyond 