birds
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Eagle Resurrection
Bald Eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) over Croton Point Park. Hugely perched in trees, wheeling in the air on their seven-feet wingspans, primary feathers sticking out like fingers, or powerfully, but not super-speedily, rowing through the air. I was reminded of the giant eagles in Tolkien, deus-ex-machina-ing over and over again to pull Hobbits and wizards out…
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Let’s Get Closer, Shall We?
The Inner Borough from the end of Pier 5 in Brooklyn Bridge Park. This is wide-angle, 24mm lens equivalent on the zoom, approaching fish-eye. The third large building in from the left, with the strong dark verticals, is 55 Water Water Street, an otherwise mediocre pile from the ruinous era of square-foot architecture.Zoomed in about…
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Winter’s Purple
On Brooklyn’s rocky southwestern coast… say what? This outwash plain should be sand all the way to the Continental Shelf, but there are places where we have piled up the boulders. The rip-rap along Shore Road Greenway, from Owl’s Head Park down under the Verrazano Narrows and beyond, for instance, is fine habitat in winter…
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Mallard on Ice
A female Anas platyrhynchos. Underrated in comparison to the peacock-like male of the species.
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Weekend Birds, Ice, Sky
Northern Mockingbird (Mimus polyglots). This bird was quite territorial, chasing robins, sparrows, and me, making two passes overhead. Spring must be not too far away.Downy Woodpercker (Picoides pubescens). A rather subtle tapping alerted me to this one.Size comparison between Herring (Larus smithsonianus) and Ring-billed (Larus delawarensis). All of the above were in Brooklyn Bridge Park.Gratuitous:…
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Breakaway Scaup
May I present to you with a male Greater Scaup (Aythya marila)? These birds are found off Brooklyn’s shore, particularly in Gravesend and Dead Horse Bays, during winter. Over seventeen thousand were counted in DHB last Monday during a coastal survey. Now, that is a raft of ducks. But this male was all by himself,…
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White-throat
One of those indefatigable winter warriors, a White-throated Sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis), in the life-giving Sumac. This is one of the easiest birds to identify by voice, since its call, transcribed as “Oh-sweet-Canada Canada Canada” or “Old-Sam-Peabody Peabody Peabody” (I have duel allegiances) is distinctive and frequent. These birds will head to Canada to breed, their…
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Belted Kingfisher
A Belted Kingfisher (Megaceryle alcyon) was patrolling some of the un-iced water in Stranahan-Olmsted-Vaux’s park over the long weekend.This is a male. Male birds are typically more colorful than females, but this isn’t the case with this species. M. alcyon females have a rusty band below the blue collar-like markings, the “belt” of their common…
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Bills V
The Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus) is a woodpecker who often forages on the ground, digging and poking for ants and beetles and those ever gooey larvae. This particular bill appears to have some dirt on it from poking into Green-Wood last fall. This species is found across the U.S., but western birds have red-shafted feathers,…
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Ring-billed Gull
Last year, I posted a picture of a Ring-billed Gull (Larus delawarensis) on a lamp between Pier 5 & 6 in Brooklyn Bridge Park. This year, with a better-lensed camera, I offer another shot of a Ring-billed on the fence in the same area. Could it be the same bird? It’s very tolerant of people,…
Backyard and Beyond 