Brooklyn
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Raptor Wednesday
Merlins like to perch and don’t seem to be as jumpy as, say, the Accipiters, who are constantly on the move.This Falco columbarius had just returned to this perch, where I’d earlier seen it, from quite a too-do with several Blue Jays, which were mobbing it in a nearby tree. Green-Wood‘s a good place…
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Woodcock Season
American Woodcocks (Scolopax minor) are back in town! This one in Green-Wood was pointed out to us by a fellow birder on Saturday; also, a correspondent had one in her back yard in Park Slope the other day. If you were following this blog last year at this time, there were some up-close moments with…
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Limbs Up
A dead street tree presents a wintery image on 9th Street. One of those cultivars that reaches high.
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Flickering
If you’re going to hide in the ornamental cherry, don’t be screeching. But then, nobody ever accused the Northern Flickers (Colaptes auratus) of being subtle, with their loud calls, white rumps, and flickering yellow underwings (red in the West). Not to mention this palate of plumage…
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LBJs & CFWs
Or, in birding parlance, the “little brown jobs” and “confusing fall warblers.” The little brown jobs aren’t necessarily all that brown once you get a good look at them, but they are small and flighty. The confusing fall warblers are now in their regular plumage, not their distinctive spring breeding feathers. These are not the…
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Nyssa Shine
These shiny red leaves are Nyssa sylvatica, Black Tupelo or Black Gum. One of the great fall color trees. Have you been bathing in fall colors?
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Newtown Creek
This is the design on the back of Newtown Creek Alliance business cards. What the…? Ah, of course. It’s the creek, coming off the East River to divide Queens, on top and to the right, and Brooklyn. The Brooklyn neighborhood of Greenpoint is essentially a peninsula. To be more specific, it was a marshy creek,…
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Butorides virescens
An inside source tells me that there was indeed a Green Heron nest in Green-Wood this season.Behold a juvenile; there are at least two. This one caught two fish as it walked around the edge of the pond towards me. These pics are from earlier this month. They will fly south any… minute now. After…
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Raptor Wednesday
On Saturday, two passes through Green-Wood Cemetery on either side of brunch came up zilch on the raptor count, so Sunday I went back in amidst the nuthatches, kinglets, and warblers. Within a ten-minute period, I’d spotted a Sharp-shinned Hawk, two Red-tailed Hawks, a Merlin, and then an American Kestrel: now, that’s more like it!…
Backyard and Beyond 