Green-Wood
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Kestrel Week IV
A male American Kestrel in Green-Wood. The wide black bar on the tail so nicely fanned below is a good way to ID the male in flight, since the blue wings can’t be seen from below.These are some highlights from the literature: self-explanatory titles edition: “American Kestrel Eating Carrion” “American Kestrel Transports Norway Rat” (“labored…
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Mammal Monday: Wait, How Many?
Judging from the poop, Green-Wood is over-run with Raccoons (Procyon lotor). They need some coyotes. During the day, you can occasionally see a few way up in a pine or other conifer, sleeping, scratching. Less frequently, you can see a whole family in their swank condo wondering who the hell you are.
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Song Again
It wasn’t the mother lode of American Robins that made me think that spring couldn’t be far off now. Most of our local Robins do head south for winter, but some stick around in wide-ranging flocks to eat fruits instead of invertebrates. Above are a few of the fifty or so I came across in…
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Sap Fall
A great frozen waterfall of beech sap stalactiting from a massive specimen. The hang here is two plus feet!Gorgeous, but a sign of distress for the tree.
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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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Jawbones
Rodent. Which one? Found amid an owl (and other?) pellet bonanza recently.Jaws a-plenty, in fact, but no skulls. The last time I found a good patch of pellets, there were lots of skulls. Some owls will eat the head first, then the body later. Inch scale here.And this one with the long incisor. When I…
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Raptor Wednesday
On a very cold recent Sunday, this Cooper’s Hawk was perched just inside the 5th Avenue gates of Green-Wood Cemetery. There was no sound or feather of another bird nearby.The fat resiny buds mark this tree as a Horse Chestnut. And these eyes mark everything that moves.
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Sappy
Sap wells drilled by… a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, presumably. The birds will lap up the sap and any insects attracted to the slightly sweet liquid. Other birds may gather at such wells to eat the insects that are also attracted to the sap. This insect gathering is, of course, mostly a non-winter habit. This winter, there…
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Bracket
Or shelf. Monday’s mushroom, or fruiting fungal body, was growing out of a stump in Green-Wood. The volcanic cone of old wood, all hollowed out inside, was host to several such ‘shrooms: this was the smaller and fresher looking of them. I know it’s the beginning of the week, but just think of the fungal…
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See Under: Trees
Exploring the shady underbellies of conifers this time of year can reveal some deep… uh… stuff. Yes. there’s quite a lot of excrement, for one thing, although that is by no means confined to the base of conifers. I’ll spare you pictures of the turd-like turds, but here are a couple of interesting byproducts. Not…
Backyard and Beyond 