Brooklyn Bridge Park
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Ice
Yesterday, as the temperature rose up to the freezing point, the bays between the piers at Brooklyn Bridge Park were filled with undulating pancake ice. These Mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) were putting their succulent layer of fat to good use.And, Dear Reader, a mystery. The gentleman cleaning the area said a woman had been sitting for…
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Sumac Robin
10* yesterday. This is one of four American Robins who were scouring the Sumac berries. Not all Robins head south for the winter. These could also be birds from further north, this their south. Wintering Robins tend to flock and change their dietary habits, since there are few earthworms to be had now.
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Polar Vortex
The secret, besides bundling up, is walking away from the wind, although I suppose we all have to go home at some point. 5F/-16C according to the Watchtower LED above Brooklyn Bridge Park, a reading which takes no account of the ice-spikes hammered into the sinuses by the wind chill. But I remember much, much…
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Special Mega Non-Storm Edition
The capital of media bullshit makes it through another insignificant winter storm. I send my best wishes to people in the Midwest and New England who actually had some serious weather; pay no mind our hysteria and ratings/click-whoring news-tainment companies, who must feed on your eyes like a parasite to survive. Rather more impressive was…
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Fall
I cropped Lower Xanadu out of this image so that you could enjoy the honey-wheat color of this Spartina in the morning sunlight without any distractions.
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Golden Frog
Found dangling in Brooklyn Bridge Park. The helpful tag led me to @seemetellme, an artist who gifts small objects around the city, and, indeed, other parts of world. A sucker for animal art, I took this but left another, non-animal, elsewhere in the park. For someone else’s accidental discovery. (Through the magic of the interwebs,…
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In the Spartina
They seemed to be taking whole reeds, perhaps to line their nests in the rocks. Rats can be awfully finicky about their nests. Rattus rattus, baby. Updated: Evidently actually Rattus norvegicus. See comments.
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Migration
A time fraught with hazards. This warbler didn’t make it. Perhaps it was taken by one of the Merlins scouring the air over the park lately, for raptors are on the move, too.But also a time of new life, as a Common Yellowthroat in his first year makes his way south, towards the Southeast, Florida,…
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Late Summer, Early Fall
Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata) pods bursting.
Backyard and Beyond 