birds
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Feeder Birds
This White-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis) kept flaring its wings in an attempt to scare off an implacable Mourning Dove taking up under half of the feeder space. This is another one of those doves, Zenaida macroura.Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis): the woods were not full of these birds this winter without a winter. No need for…
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Midtown Woodcock
Bryant Park, in the midst of Midtown, is not one of nature’s wonders. It does, however, tend to capture a surprisingly rich assortment of bird life. This is because it’s a trap, a vortex of bright lights and reflections that confuse, a glass cage that stuns those it doesn’t kill outright.One of the park’s typical…
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Springing All The Sudden
This is the time of year when spring rushes in and overwhelms: your blogger ends up with a full heart and full camera and not enough days in the week.Silhouettes of Cedar Waxwings amidst the blooming maple. More Acer.Amongst the many signs (and sighs) of spring, the Eastern Phoebe’s pumping tail surely ranks near the…
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Of Happiness
Sialia sialis. Alternate titles of this post: On Happiness, O Happiness.
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The Red-Shouldered League
There are more Buteos in heaven and earth then are dreamt of in our philosophy. Or at least here on earth, which is graced with some 29 species. These are, generally, medium-to-large hawks with broad wings and short tails who typically soar overhead. The Red-tailed Hawk (B. jamaicensis) is the most common in North America.…
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It’s No 2015
Last winter, the Bald Eagles were thick in the air up the Hudson at Croton Point. This winter, which has been absurdly mild, not so much. The rivers aren’t frozen further north, so there’s no reason for these fish-eaters to pile up further south. We did see 1-3 adult Baldies yesterday over a span of…
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Balcony Perch
I saw a pair of Pigeons, but my companion saw something else in their general vicinity. We were down below the rise of the Heights in Brooklyn Bridge Park, looking up to where the swells live. The hawk was perched on the top balcony, facing in, but with that wonderfully flexible neck glance backwards and sideways and…
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The Narrowest Edge
“We so easily settle for the diminished world around us, a world that, in terms of the richness and abundance of plant and animal life, may be a mere 10 percent of what once was. Unaware of what we have lost, we can’t imagine what we might restore, and instead, we argue over how many…
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Home Turf
The block across the street is made up of yellow brick bow-fronted row houses which are, thankfully for my view from the 4th floor, only 2.5 stories high. One of these houses has a cage frame for an air-condidtioner in its second story window. There’s no air-conditioner, but there is what looks like some kind of plastic…
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Wing Complex
In addition to an entire dead Common Loon on the rocks of the jetty pier at Bush Terminal Park, there was this wing. I looked at it and was at a loss for what it might be. It didn’t hit any of the song bird possibilities, and this time of year those are much reduced.…
Backyard and Beyond 