Brooklyn
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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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Cooper’s
Cooper’s Hawk (Accipiter cooperii) in Prospect. The red-orange eyes are a mark of a mature bird; juvenile birds have yellowish eyes. This accipiter, or forest hawk, is named after William Cooper, one of the founders of the New York Academy of Sciences; the species was named and first described by the naturalist Charles Lucien Bonaparte…
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Silhouette Bird
A silhouette on a hazy day… a bird on the head of all-seeing Justice atop Brooklyn Borough Hall. My first thought: probably a pigeon, yet this looked too upright for that. My view from below on the street could account for that angle, of course, but there were, notably, no other pigeons in evidence. Ah-ha,…
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Xmas with the Owls
Some more pics, from the Snowy Owl Irruption of 2013-14. We may never see this many Snowy Owls again in Brooklyn (and throughout the NE and into the Great Lakes Midwest). While a bonanza for us, this massive irruption isn’t necessarily good for the birds. These are mostly juvenile birds, and juveniles of any species…
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Xmas with the Owls
In this extreme telephoto, the little white blob is a Snowy Owl. From a distance, they look rather like white plastic bags in the grasslands, not an uncommon sight, unfortunately. These two bipeds have walked up to within feet of the animal, which was on the edge of the runway. The bird was either incredibly…
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Xmas with the Owls
The amazing yellow eyes are fixed in bone rings, meaning the bird must move its head to see in different directions. The result is a remarkable 270-degree twisting of the neck to scan the surroundings. The lemon yellow is said to act like a filter to block the bright glare of sun off of snow.Note…
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Xmas with the Owls
The Snowy Owl invasion is astonishing. Fifteen were sighted in Brooklyn on the Christmas Bird Count on the 21st, an unprecedented number. We saw four this past Saturday. This particular bird was flushed by a couple walking across the grasslands, where they shouldn’t have been (but all the signs have disappeared). The flushing meant it…
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Shameless Teaser
We’ll be spending the whole week with Brooklyn’s Snowy Owls, Bubo scandiacus. Yes, never mind endless repeats of A Christmas Story (“You’ll shoot your eye out!”), Planet of the Apes sequels (“Damn them all to hell!”), It’s A Wonderful Life If You Have a Guardian Angel, and the National Concussion League, here at B&B it’s…
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Wood Duck
Wood Duck (Aix sponsa) hanging out with the Northern Shovelers (Anas clypeata).
Backyard and Beyond 