birds

Black-capped Chickadees (Poecile atricapillus) will come to your hand if you offer them birdseed. Looks like they will also probably come to your hand if you’re dead in the snow…. These photos were taken from some distance, but I assume those are Grey Squirrel remains.It’s a cute-bird-eat-cute-mammal world out there, after all. The omnivorous approach…

You know how modern, big-money campaigns work, right? Known partisan voters are bombarded with fliers, TV and internet ads, and robocalls. A few people and corporations make a pile of money. The unregistered voters and non-voting registered voters are completely left out of the loop. But door-to-door canvassing was the point of that Harper’s article…

Orange-bellied American Woodcock taken by Red-tailed Hawk. Dramatic, but not the last word. The other night, we heard a few Woodcocks, who have some great alternative names (bog snipe, bog sucker, timberdoodle, Labrador twister), at Floyd Bennett Field. The males were calling, then flying into the air twittering and burbling to impress potential mates. The…

Positioned high and back, these eyes can see threats from behind and above. We tread very carefully and left it as it was in that snow hole.Shhh. * Amazing! The Trumpidiot in charge of the Department of HHS, who was, you will recall, approved by the Republicans even in the face of some insider trading,…

There’s a system of four letter codes birding banders/ringers use to identify bird species. It’s usually made up of the first two letters of the bird’s common name, which is frequently two words long. Thus NOrthern GOshawk is NOGO. Just what you needed, right? Three things to call ’em: a common name, a scientific binomial…

A few of the nine American Woodcock I saw on Thursday in Prospect Park. Or, in this one’s case:Outside the park. On Vanderbilt St. in Windsor Terrace. I herded this one off the street. A stalking cat gave me the side-eye for doing so.The bird landed in the only patch of open ground around. But then the…

I’ve never had such an obliging Tufted Titmouse before. The binomial, Baeolophus bicolor, translates as small crest of two colors. More fun with names on this MSU page. * Let’s pause today, in light of yet another court staying the latest edition of Trump’s religious bigotry, to remember a despised alien “race” that professed a…