Floyd Bennett Field
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Laughing into Monday
Good to see the Laughing Gulls back in town. I heard them overhead for a couple of days before seeing any. These were out at Gravesend Bay and Floyd Bennet Field.An immature Ring-billed Gull, a mature Greater Black-backed Gull, and a Brant let you know that Laughing Gulls are on the smaller size. (The GBBG…
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Meadows
The protected grasslands at Floyd Bennett Field are looking fine in autumn.You can fill your screen with these by clicking on them. *** Much less of a pretty picture: on the rise of illiberal democracy there and here.
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Park-ing
Did you know the verb parking originally meant setting up strips of park, often with trees, in the center or the edges of roads? Then those trees along the road were roped into being used to tie up horses. The meaning of parking thus changed: it became what you did to your horse. From there…
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Raptor Wednesday
A Red-tailed Hawk flew by with a Gray Squirrel hanging from its talons, the long bushy tail a banner of mammalian defeat. The hawk landed in a tree and spent maybe a minuted pulling at the mammal with its beak, no doubt ending its life. But the bird then moved to another part of the…
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Water, Water, Not Everywhere In Winter
Brant (Branta bernicla), geese who visit the region in winter.A trio of Canada Geese (Branta canadensis) in the mid-zone for scale. These two geese species share a genus and look superficially similar from afar. This was fresh water rippling out into Jamaica Bay, and everybody was happy to get some. Last week it was…
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North Forty
Return-a-Gift Pond had one singular sensation of a tree frog last week. I wonder if they emerged early in our warm patch, then beat a hasty retreat in the face of the snow? Because reports are that they’re rockin’ now. On the other side of the pond, something is taking over, covering over everything, and giving…
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Kestrels, Kestrels, We’ve Got Kestrels!
Male Falco sparverius at Floyd Bennett Field, where the grasslands, currently mown, can often be a good place to see this most common of NYC raptors. This one is particularly painterly with those spots (and the cloudy day).Here is a female, farther away from the camera. Her wings don’t have the blue of the male…
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Blue-winged Teal
A drake Blue-winged Teal (Anas discors). Surely one of the most handsome of all ducks.The species is a long-distance migrant, some heading deep down into South America. They’re also early birds, one of the first to arrive and the first to leave. I rarely see them in NYC.Here’s the hen. The pair were dabbling in…
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Backyard and Beyond 