birds
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Herons
Great Egret (Ardea alba) and Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) aligned in Woodlawn. The Great Egret was quite vocal when it flew: a guttural barking. No songbirds these. Note that these two birds are in the same genus: “egret” and “heron” are basically synonyms; the Latin “ardea” means “heron.”In Green-Wood. The correspondence between the white…
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Tern, Tern, Tern
A Common Tern (Sterna hirundo) at sunset on Pier 5. The last of the days light is shining right through the nares or nostrils of this bird’s bill. Common Terns now nest on the old piers on Governor’s Island: 100 chicks were banded there last year. Tomorrow, the It’s Your Tern Festival will be celebrating…
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Bird Sex
Bird sex is usually a very brief affair, a quick connection between cloaca. They may make this contact many times over the course of a day, or three, but the actual hookup itself is a matter of seconds. Sperm is transferred without benefit of a penis (except in the case of ducks and a few…
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Red-tailed Hawks
Spot the three young Red-tailed hawks in this nest.
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More Maine Birds
An exhausted Chestnut-sided Warbler (Setophaga pensylvanica) looking for food amidst the festering seaweed of Lobster Cove on Monhegan Island.And here’s one of the Empidonax flycatchers in the same spot. These flycatchers are impossible to tell apart unless they vocalize.There were big flocks of Cedar Waxwings (Bombycilla cedrorum) over Monhegan, sometimes landing near by. A Red-necked…
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Nesting Update
Returning to three nests reported here on May 23rd, I find the birds incubating. Nesting season is, for the observer, rather more contemplative than active. The Green Heron (Butorides virescens) was the only one of these three not hunkered down when I arrived. The bird was grooming itself — could be either male or female…
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Two Rarities…Offshore
Monhegan Island is ten miles off the coast of Maine. It’s blessed with ample fresh water and lots of plant life, which inspires the insects that hungry migratory birds are looking for as they sweep up from the south this time of year. For many of these migrants, the tiny island is their first sight…
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Falcons
As you may know, there are four young Peregrines in the 55 Water Street scrape. They are scheduled for banding tomorrow. Over at the House of D scrape however, this year’s crop of birds are older, much closer to fledgling. A friend and I have been stalking the place like paparazzi, which is sort of…
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Adios, Texas
Talk about “road-side hawks”! A Swainson’s Hawk (Buteo swainsoni). Loooong wings. Didn’t look like there was anything on the road, yet the bird must have been attracted to something before oncoming traffic flushed it (we, of course, had already pulled off to the side of the road).Another roadie, the Harris’s Hawk (Parabuteo unicinctus), telcom-poll percher…
Backyard and Beyond 