Brooklyn
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Ring-necked Duck?
Aythya collaris does have a chestnut collar. But you usually can’t see it in the field.What sticks out, of course, is the white ring around the bill. Yet nobody calls it a Ring-billed Duck, except perhaps me in my bird-name dyslexia. Why is this?Rick Wright was speaking at NYC Audubon recently. One of the things…
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Mud Castles
Wasp nests, provisioned with spiders and other delicacies for larvae to eat. Vintage ’17, awaiting the warmth of ’18. I had a Black & Yellow Mud-dauber Wasp under the balcony at my Cobble Hill apartment. The brand new adult wasps emerged in June.
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Mammal Monday
In abstentia.Just to reiterate, not to say regurgitate: owl gobbles up critter, digests all the good bits, and then throws up the bones and fur. Pellets are wet gooey masses when they’re yawped up, but still, whole skulls through the throat?! Of course, they went in that way, too.
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Kestrels Update
A favored perch. For a few days. We thought it was too crowded up there for sex, but it wasn’t.When you see a bird doing a series of wide-open yawn-like movements, they’re probably yawping up a pellet of undigested remains of yesterday’s meal. Two of these pellets are visible on this platform, there’s another behind…
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Beeching Out
All the same Fagus.Galls, burls, one and the same? Did they dig out or dig in?
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Yellowbelly
On a 40F day, a single turtle is observed on the edge of the Sylvan Water. What’s this, though? Not a Red-eared Slider (Trachemys scripta elegans), by far the most common turtle across the city. I once counted 70 basking along the Lullwater in Prospect Park. This is a Yellow-bellied Slider (Trachemys scripta scripta). As…
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Raptor Wednesday
Other (?) Kestrels:This one swooped across our path in Green-Wood, shot across 5th Avenue and disappeared behind the buildings there. It soon emerged with prey in talon. House Sparrow, I guess.We know there are at least two males in the area, because we’ve seen them either together or simultaneously. This shot, from earlier this month,…
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Sappy
A Blue Atlas Cedar (Cedrus atlantica)A line of sapsucker holes. About 3/4″ deep, through the bark.These holes are chiseled out by, in our parts, the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus varius), who drinks the sugary sap and snaps up any insects also attracted to the sweet stuff.
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Mammal Monday
Procyon lotor being diurnal? Questionable but not unheard of (other than being rabid, I mean). Still, a good rule of thumb with all wild animals is to keep your distance. I let my telephoto get close. Underneath two hickory trees, and getting some of the last of the nuts I think.
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Kestrel Check-In
Check. Check. Check.All these shots are from this week. The last two were on Thursday afternoon. I saw the female feed on small birds, presumably House Sparrows, twice within an hour. She’s packing in the food for egg-laying: remember, an American Kestrel egg represents 11% of the female’s body weight.For raptor friends, the scrape cam…
Backyard and Beyond 