Brooklyn
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Raptor Wednesday
This tangle of a pair of trees by the Terrace Bridge in Prospect Park, complete with what looks like a fairly-secure snapped-off Y-shaped limb, is a fine raptor hang-out. I’ve seen a Red-tailed Hawk, Merlin, and now a Cooper’s Hawk (Accipiter cooperii) up here in recent weeks, each separately. Yes, the Coop is in this…
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A Month of Raptors
I didn’t begin the month thinking I would end up paying rigorous attention to the raptors I’d see, but the New Year’s Day appearance of a Peregrine Falcon zooming down 39th Street became, in retrospect, auspicious. Below are the month’s raptor sightings, meaning individual birds may have been counted more than once, for instance the…
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Vertical Canyonlands
The distinctive basin and range topography of Northern Hackberry (Celtis occidentalis) bark. Layers of the bark’s growth can be seen, looking like layers of sediment, to continue the geological analogy. Hackberries were once classified in the Ulmaceae, or elm, family but are now considered to be a member of the Cannabaceae, or hemp family. Yes,…
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Raptor Wednesday
St. Agnes towers over the northern end the Gowanus. There must be a grand view from up there. This is a Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) ~ but you knew that.
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White-headed Sea Eagle
Yesterday in Green-Wood I was enjoying the sun in a section of the cemetery I’d never been in before when a Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) flew overhead. Whoa! The bird was a mature adult; it takes about four years for those white feathers to come in completely on the head and tail. The look is…
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Raccoon Remains
Magic-hour light on road-kill, scavenged, and partially petrified Raccoon (Procyon lotor).Oh, and good morning!
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Duck Out of Water
I don’t remember the last time I saw a Canvasback (Aythya valisineria). Whenever it was, the bird was in the water. This bright male surprised me on the rocks of Pier 4 at Brooklyn Bridge Park this afternoon. From a distance, with a few Gadwall around him in the water and on the rocks, I…
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Gowanus
Some fifty Mallards were hanging out on the Superfund canal last weekend. Prospect Park’s Lake was mostly frozen, but this tidal, briny, self-heating (?) water remained open to waterfowl. It was a rather active morning: I heard American Crows in the distance and shrieking Blue Jays closer, which made me wonder if there was a…
Backyard and Beyond 