Brooklyn
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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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Meanwhile, in the Wedding Venue Garden
In the last week, two employees of what many are still calling, for sentimental reasons, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, confided in me about the low level of morale there since the purge of its research program in August. In September, the Garden’s Board of Trustees approved a new mission statement; the old one had proved…
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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,…
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Bills IV
Get a load of the schnoze on this Northern Shoveler (Anas clypeata). This is one of the dabbling duck species, straining tiny crustaceans, plankton, and seeds from the surface of the water. These long bills have comb-like filters on them. This is a male, but not yet in full breeding plumage, which, like the large…
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Fog
I am partial to a good fog. Last Saturday, there was a lovely one. From Brooklyn Bridge Park, Manhattan was a dark smudge at water level; the moving smudge was the Staten Island Ferry. It lifted by the time I crossed the Brooklyn Bridge, but returned as I rounded down the Hudson side. That was…
Backyard and Beyond 