birds
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Raptor Us
As I turned the corner onto 41st Street across from the park, preparing for the hike up the moraine, I noticed a big bird take off from the slope above the park’s retaining wall. It was a Red-tailed Hawk, of course, and it landed in a London plane tree anchored in the sidewalk. Crossing the…
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Sap Sucker II
Back to this… birch?This time — and it was the same time as yesterday’s Tufted Titmouse, give or take a minute — a White-breasted Nuthatch is partaking of the sapsucker holes.In Green-Wood Cemetery at this time of year, you can go a good distance without seeing any birds. But when you come across them, the…
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Sap Sucker I
Whatever this tree is, it had been roundly tapped by Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers over the years.And the little wells of sap attract others. For instance:Here’s a Tufted Titmouse in early December. Check out those tiny toes getting footholds in the bark, in the sap holes. Tomorrow: another visitor at the same time.
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Raptor Wednesday
This Red-tailed Hawk sailed past me to land further up a slope in Green-Wood. Had it captured something? As you probably know, most raptor strikes come up empty. But not this time. Was it a thrush?This perch in a pine seemed to be an even better butcher’s block. (It gets gory from here).Visceral even.And within four…
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Red What?
The red head of the Red-bellied Woodpecker is a bold flag in winter. But it’s not the “Red-headed Woodpecker” because that name goes to another species, which has an entirely red head as an adult, not just this mohawk-like swath of color. This is a male, the color going from the nape to the bill.…
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Raptor Wednesday: Justice Edition
For the last two weeks I’ve been serving on a jury in a murder trial. This was the view from the jury room: downtown Brooklyn, with the dwarfed tower of Borough Hall just visible to the left of the long Supreme Court building in the foreground. The row of buildings from the center to the…
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Chickadee-dee-dee
An energetic Black-capped Chickadee barely pausing in action recently.Poecile atricapillus.One Christmas Bird Count a few years back, not a single one was sighted in Brooklyn. These birds are so familiar, especially at bird feeders, that their absence was disconcerting. Thirty-four were counted at this year’s Brooklyn (Kings Co.) CBC. (This one was, however, spotted in…
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The Big Book of Eagles
But let’s start… small: the Pygmy Eagle weights about the same as a pigeon. Whaa-ut? Hieraaetus weiskei is found on New Guinea and some of the surrounding islands. Evolutionary pressures on islands can sometimes result in rather small animals. Interestingly, this species is said to be one of the closest living relatives of the largest…
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Hunkering Down With Ardea herodias
November 25th.December 8th.December 9th. You will notice that the water is iced over in the last picture, making fishing problematic. With fish and frogs out of the picture, what is this young Great Blue Heron eating? Whatever it can catch, presumably, including birds and small mammals. I wonder if it’s policing the Dell Water for…
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Larix Snack
Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata) in a larch (Larix) scarfing up… something. It looked like popcorn. It was too big for a seed from the cones, which wouldn’t be white anyway. And besides, the things were also being gleaned from the limbs. I guess they was some kind of larvae. Something that thought they could while…
Backyard and Beyond 