birds
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ABDs
The American Black Duck (Anas rubripes) is often found with Mallard Ducks (Anas platyrhynchos), looks somewhat like the female of that ubiquitous species, and sometimes interbreeds with our most recognizable duck, making for hybrids that mix characteristics of the species. This pair looks relatively un-hybridized, with dark orange legs, dark feathers, strong eyeline, olive-yellowish bills.…
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Ice, eagles
Yesterday morning, on a blustery cold day in Columbia County, New York, we listened to the ice moving down the Hudson. This wasn’t a very loud sound, but it was hypnotic hearing the crinkle of ice folding into itself, the cristle of it moving south with the current. (Excuse the smudge of my frozen finger…
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Watering Hole
An open patch of water in Prospect Park’s Lake attracts everybody. The Ring-billed gulls — of which there were hundreds on the ice — had just taken off, leaving the Mute swans in charge. The crowd meant more fowl were on-shore and close to the path, grooming and resting. This allowed me to get up-close…
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Cold-schmold!
The Monk Parakeets, also known as Quaker Parrots (Myiopsitta monachus) in Green-Wood Cemetery were celebrating the return of (barely) above freezing temperatures yesterday with their usual racket. Once, long ago in Green-Wood, with my bins in hand identifying me as a weirdo, a couple came up and asked if I was there to look at…
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Brooklyn Raven
Winter, especially at the tail-end of a bona fide cold snap like we’ve had most of the week, generally presents few surprises for the nature watcher. But this morning, as I wandered about Green-Wood Cemetery, I watched a Common raven (Corvus corax) and a Red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) contest the airspace overhead. The Red-tailed was…
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Tree Sparrows
American Tree Sparrows (Spizella arborea). They breed in the tundra, and visit us during winter. These were seen at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge. Rufus-caps and sides, white bars on the wing, and a dark central spot distinguish them from the other little brown jobs that are the New World sparrows. (The omnipresent House Sparrow is…
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Downy
A Downy woodpecker (Picoides pubescens) working the bark for delicious invertebrate prey. The stiff tail feathers of a woodpecker help her (this is a female, lacking the red patch on the back of the head, trust me on this) balance on the vertical. Her feet have a zygodactyl pattern, two toes forward, two back, also…
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Extreme Birding
Extreme in the sense of the abilities of my camera, that is. These birds were all seen on the piers or de facto bays between the piers at Brooklyn Bridge Park.A comparison of the size difference between Ring-billed gulls (Larus delawarensis) on the left and a Herring gull (Larus argentatus) on the right.A Red-throated Loon…
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Preen on
Mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) preening. Feather maintenance is of course vitally important to birds. One of the things they have to worry about is feather lice, which, without regular bathing and preening, could become a problem. Interestingly, feather lice species have evolved over time to associate only with “their” species of birds. There is an analogy…
Backyard and Beyond 