Brooklyn
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#BrooklynKestrels
Female.Male. He lost one of his middle tail feathers. It was broken more than half way down and hanging at odd angles by a rachis thread for a whole day.Then he had a piece of head fluff coming off the top for most of another day. There have been almost daily Fish Crow/American Kestrel battles.…
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Raptor Wednesday
The male of the #BrooklynKestrels pair is stashing prey in a rotted-out knot in his favorite perching tree. This photo is through the screen, rain, and foliage. But with those two little songbird feet sticking up like an amateur gangland corpse disposal, you get the drift. Have seen a few bodies cached here since discovering…
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B.B. Cuckoo
The Black-billed Cuckoo is relatively elusive, which is surprising for such a long-tailed creature. “Sluggish and secretive” says Cornell’s All About Birds about Coccyzus erythropthalmus. I was surprised on Friday when a popped into eye-level view at Brooklyn Bridge Park. I see the Yellow-billed (C. americanus) more often — and that isn’t that often. Both…
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Weekend Kestrels
The female is rarely seen these days. She emerges from the cornice nest and flies up to the London Plane on 41st Street to take food bought up by her mate. Here she briefly perches on the avenue London Plane.It gets gory from here… The male with prey in the fog.An hour later, the fog…
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Raptor Wednesday
I wrote about the local Kestrels for the Brooklyn Bird Club’s excellent Clapper Rail. Several days of hunting portrayed here. By now, I guess that there are young in the nest.
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Mammal Monday
This European or Brown Hare (Lepus europaeus) was as big as most of the dogs in Göteborg. We were surprised to see it on a backstreet one evening. I think some of the locals were, too. The species has been expanding its range in Sweden.Red Squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris).Like our Eastern Greys, which have become invasive…
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No. Ro. Wi.
Rare to see a swallow perched. Yet Northern Rough-winged Swallows, they of the long name, seem to do it more than the Barn and Tree Swallows they were sharing the Sylvan Water’s insects with. Stelgidopteryx serripennis, scraper wing saw feather.
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Raptor Wednesday
We had to be away from the #BrooklynKestrels Lookout for a week. All the trees leafed out in our absence. Except for this bare branch sticking upright across the street. Yes! The wee falcons are still going strong. Yesterday morning around 8:30 the male announced his presence with swirling call. He had prey. The female…
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House
Whose nest is this?Why, it’s Passer domesticus, of course. The House Sparrow. Usually stuffed into a hole in a building, or, better yet, a stop light pole, this tornado of dried grasses is generally invisible. House Sparrows are unrelated to the New World sparrows; sometimes they are called weaver finches, and looking at the woven…
Backyard and Beyond 