birds
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Vane
This large wind vane on a building on Hanson Place and South Elliot is one of the delights of downtown Brooklyn. It is a sight rapidly being overshadowed by the generic glass towers rising rising around the neighborhood, which make the borough look like Anywheresville. Three things: 1. This actually does move, which, for a…
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SI Surprise
This time of year, one visits Mt. Loretto Unique Area, a NYS DEC property on Staten Island, for the rich plethora of summer plants and insects, with some good birds thrown into the mix. But as soon as we got out of the car the other day, we noticed two big dark birds in the…
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Parasites
Well, if I don’t recognize it, how will the other birds? Spotted in Marine Park’s wild west side a week ago: the identity of this bird baffled me for while. And then it hit me. Young Brown-headed Cowbird (Molothrus ater). This bird was raised by another species, for Brown-headed Cowbirds are brood parasites: they lay…
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Tyrannus tyrannus
The Eastern Kingbird. What a binomial, eh?This one took a large bumblebee to a branch and battered it for a bit before gobbling it down.
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Monks Eat With Their Hands
Monk Parakeets (Myiopsitta monachus) munching on fresh Hemlock cones.Here, if you’re doing eye-flips over wild parrots in Brooklyn, is more information about these Andean-origin birds.Usually fairly skittish, these raucous birds were so intent on eating that half a dozen of them tolerated us standing not so far away from them for a while. At least…
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Sunset Park Osprey
We’re at the limits of my optical abilities here, but it looks like the Ospreys nesting atop a light tower on the parking lot of the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal have had at least one youngster. Note that spotty back; young birds have this scaling of the feathers. Possibly two. One of these birds flew…
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Water Birds
A Great Blue Heron in up nearly to its knees. In birds, the knees are very close to the sternum; the next joint down the leg, which most people probably think is the knee, is actually the heel. What you can’t see here are all the dragon- and damselflies going about their business as the…
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Backyard and Beyond 