Brooklyn
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Oaks
I assume you’re all voting tomorrow. Hopefully you’ll take friends and relatives along with you…
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Kestrels, As In Plural
Well, well, well! Thursday morning, male and female American Kestrels perched on the building down the block.The male.The female.The male flew back and forth from the rail atop the bulkhead to this ailanthus several times. Both falcons disappeared for a while, then their calls returned us to the windows. They were circling each other overhead.…
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Flickering
Northern Flicker, yellow-shafted edition of the east. They have mostly passed through in migration by now, but a couple of weeks ago, the city was full of them.This Colaptes auratus male — females lack the black mustache marks — excreted while perched up here. Most of these birds are pretty skittish, bolting quickly at the…
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Return of the King
I almost walked into this Golden-crowned Kinglet. So I just stood there and took photographs as it foraged around me, sometimes near and sometimes far. That’s my boot.Green-Wood was still flush with these yesterday, and now more Ruby-cronwend are around as well. I’ve never seen so many kinglets!
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Catching Up
One post a day, occasionally two, is hardly enough to keep track. Here then is a miscellany of things I’ve seen in recent months which haven’t made it to these pages yet. Smeared Dagger Moth caterpillar in the Bronx.American Bittern in Prospect Park, seen on the same day as that Purple Gallinule that made all…
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Mushroom Monday
To everything there is a season, and these mushrooms were on the way to deliquescing into ooze. Ants in the first picture. In the second, the white rice-looking things are alive. They are some kind of springtails, possibly of the genus Ceratophysella, and are scavenging on the rich fruit of these fruiting bodies. As always,…
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Nature Note
A first for me: here’s a Tufted Titmouse eating a Winter Wren. I saw the Baeolophus bicolor fly up from the road with a bundle that turned out to a Troglodytes hiemalis. Winter Wrens are small, but this was still a substantial load for the Titmouse. Because of the road, I suspect the smaller bird…
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More Precious than Rubies?
Ruby-crowned Kinglets are the hidden royals. The males, who have the ruby mohawk of a crown, only show them for love and war.Regulus calendula, means little king, glowing — with that ruby crown. They are very territorial; I once watched one charge his own reflection repeatedly. His ruby was definitely showing. This is a tiny…
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Raptor Wednesday
Sometimes all you have to go on is a distant shape. So today, we have three main types of raptors soaring in the sky for you. These three species were all seen the same day, by the way. First a Buteo, with long, broad wings, and a relatively short tail.The light suddenly reveals the red…
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Purple Gallinule
An immature Porphyrio martinica, pretty rare for our parts, has spent the weekend in Prospect Park. Essentially a tropical species, Purples are found year-around in Florida, the Carribean islands, and parts of Mexico. The specific epithet tells you as much: this purple waterhen is named after Martinique. They have been known to get as far…
Backyard and Beyond 