birds
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Raptor Wednesday
As I glanced out the window one fine morning… There was a zoom here and a zoom there and a Cooper’s Hawk on patrol took a fairly longish break, for a Cooper’s Hawk, on a fire escape, to watch the local Starlings and Rock Doves and Sparrows recover from their fright. Not a bad shot…
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Time Flies
It’s already been a week since we returned from Virginia, where the Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) were present in force. Nests had been claimed and birds were mating repeatedly. Check out the Route 301 bridge over the Potomac: as co-pilot, I spotted six nests near it (three were right over the road on sign towers, two…
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Raptor Wednesday
A scrum of noisy Starlings on the ground suddenly ceased their jabbering. I looked around the sky and the trees. Nothing out of the ordinary, but my raptor senses were activated. I was a few yards from the 9th Street/PPW entrance to Prospect Park. I don’t know if this female Kestrel (Falco sparverius) had spooked…
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Phoebe
Spring’s herald, the Eastern Phoebe (Sayornis phoebe). Saw lots in Green-Wood yesterday afternoon.
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Golden Hour
Sunset on the Piankatank. No, as they say, filter.A Horned Grebe (Podiceps auritus) in the twilight gold. Some of these birds were well into their breeding plumage, others not at all. The tidal Piankatank, a contest between the fresh Dragon Run and the briny Chesapeake, was also host to Common Loons and Buffleheads last week.…
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Accipiter gentilis III
The Second Atlas of Breeding Birds (2000-05) had 130 confirmed Goshawk nests in New York state, with 170 more possible and 54 probable, a decrease from the First Atlas (1980-05). But there are no records of such for the NYC-Long Island area, which lacks the extensive tracts of forest that makes up the species’ usual…
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Accipiter gentilis II
This is a juvenile. Goshawk adults, who settle into their plumage by their third year, have blue-grey backs and gray fronts. They’re unmistakable; I’ve never seen one. These yearlings, on the other wing, look like they could be mistaken for a juvenile Cooper’s Hawk. This is a bigger bird than a Cooper’s, but sizing can…
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Accipiter gentilis I
As promised, a Northern Goshawk. Goshawks are large raptors of northern woods and mountains. It’s in the Accipiter genus, along with the Cooper’s Hawk (A. cooperii) and Sharp-shinned Hawk (A. striatus). Goshawks are rare in general, and practically unheard of New York City.But a juvenile has been spotted in Prospect Park for about a month now.…
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Crown
Looks like a crown feather of an American Woodcock to me. Just under an inch long. On the snow in Prospect; it was devilishly difficult to get the warm gold of the edging accurately into digital form!And you can, I think, see these crown feathers pretty well here.
Backyard and Beyond 