birds
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The Birds Certainly Do It
Red-bellied Woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus) throwing out some wood chips from a nest cavity. Both birds were working on the excavation, and defending it from cavity-stealing Starlings. One of a pair of tiny Blue-gray Gnatcatchers (Polioptila caerulea) crafting a nest of spider webs and lichen. Yes, that’s right, spider webs and lichen.Meanwhile, having gotten the jump…
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Another Leucistic Robin
There was a leucistic American Robin (Turdus migratorius) seen in Prospect Park for at least five years, if I remember correctly. This one, spotted in Green-Wood last week, has much less pigmentation in the feathers. There’s enough of the bricky red in the breast to let you know that this is, in fact, a Robin.…
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Raptor Wednesday
A Red-tailed Hawk in Green-Wood. I was on a ridge, so the bird was only a little above eye-level.
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Ol’ Blue Eyes
Phalacrocorax auritus, the Double-crested Cormorant, with reflections of cherry trees in torrid bloom in the water.
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May Day
Amidst clusters of purple Viola in Green-Wood, a lone blue. Variation? Different species? A Spring Azure (Celastrina ladon): the azure is on the inside.Eastern Phoebe (Sayornis phoebe) paints the sky blue. A Spring Beauty (Claytonia virginica) in the Great Swamp brings us back to the pinkish.
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Raptor Wednesday
A field trip to Great Swamp NWR was a field day for raptors. There were several road-side Red-tailed along the way as well as inside the NWR’s bounds. A pair of soaring birds turned out to be a Sharp-shinned and a Broad-winged. We saw a Merlin and a Kestrel. Two birds that were probably a…
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Raptor Wednesday
The triumvirate:Red-tailed Hawk in Green-Wood.Cooper’s at Floyd Bennett Field. American Kestrel atop the Green-Wood gate. That’s a lightning rod next to this lightning bolt of a bird.
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Raptor Wednesday
The patience of a Merlin (Falco columbarius).And its knowledge of our presence.We walked the wide way around this Ginkgo biloba of a perch in Green-Wood to get this front view.
Backyard and Beyond 