birds
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Mocking the Class of ’19
A fledgling Mockingbird in a tree. These things give themselves away with their “feed me” chipping.Another, even smaller, next to the neighboring bush. I think they were siblings (seemed to be fed by the same pair of adults).Looks helpless, but easily managed to hop-skip-flap up into the heart of the bush. People often mistakenly “rescue”…
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If you build it, they will come… sometimes
But not always. This wannabe Purple Martin colony waits patiently at the Narrows Botanical Garden. The half dozen bird-shapes are decoys It’s thought that the birds like to see that someone has done some recon. The so-called “scout” phenomenon of martins who arrive weeks in advance of others at a colony is, in explained by…
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Raptor Wednesday
Hello, American Kestrels! Two female nestlings just a-bursting to check out the world, B63 bus, double-parked trucks, crazed drivers, and all! The parents, just around the corner. Interestingly, neither they nor the young could see each other directly.Mamma (presumably).A NYC classic: a rotted out wooden cornice. These small falcons are rather unusual: no other diurnal…
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Recent Birds
All the evidence pointed to nesting American Oystercatchers in here. Keep your dogs on leash!Brand new Starlings have been everywhere.A fledged Chipping Sparrow. Hardly looks it, but could fly.Quiet while the parent was foraging nearby, but loud when the parent was near.Here’s another, some days later.And another…Common Grackle fledgling. Yellow Warbler: one of the few…
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Sunset Park Chimneys
Chimney Swifts may be heard more than seen. Especially from the sidewalk, with its narrow view of the sky. But that chittering call of their’s is here, there, everywhere.They’re quite a challenge to photograph. Even more difficult is catching one entering or departing the chimney they are roosting/nesting in. Here’s the second Swift-active chimney within…
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Red-wings
At least five male Red-wing Blackbirds were all over this Common Grackle at Jamaica Bay. In the last picture, one is quite literally riding the CG out of the town. Nobody says “get off my lawn” quite like a Red-winged Blackbird. Backyard and Beyond has a friend who was chased out of a swamp once…
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BCNH
Black-crowned Night-heron stalking the shallows at low tide.A slow, patient hunter, but given to snapping the neck rather suddenly, making that breeding plume corkscrew. Is this to throw water droplets off the bill?What’s for lunch? This bird is another all-purpose devourer. In this case — three separate cases while I watched — it was worms…
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YCNH
Yellow-crowned Night-herons, Nyctanassa violacea, at the Salt Marsh Nature Center.“Where the yellow-crown’d heron comes to the edge of the marsh at night and feeds upon small crabs” wrote Whitman in Song of Myself. The low tide here reveals fiddler crabs amongst the marsh grasses. This one grabbed a crab with some nearby seaweed, took the…
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Raptor Wednesday
What a racket! Twice recently I’ve come across a storm of American Robins sounding their strident chip alarms. A perching Red-tailed Hawk was the source of the commotion both times. In this second case, a buzzing Northern Mockingbird was in on it, too, repeatedly razzing, sometimes even clipping, the big raptor. When the hawk flew…
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Start Your Week Right
An Eastern Kingbird perching near invasive honey bee hives.But not hunting.Doing… some calisthenics?Whoa… Forcing up a pellet…With that done, the bird returned to zooming amongst the bees.This is a wad of exoskeleton bits. (Much like good french fries, insects are crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside, but instead of a surface layer…
Backyard and Beyond 