Green-Wood
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Raptor Wednesday
December 15th. Every bird is unique, but we rarely have the opportunity to study them that closely. But this yearling Red-tailed Hawk has quite a lot of scapular markings, the wide white on the wings. This is broader than general for our local Red-tails (the species is found across North America with lots of variety).…
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Squirrel, Noise
As befitting a cemetery, Green-Wood can be very quiet, barring the constant faint background hum of the universe — or traffic as we call it here in Brooklyn — and the intermittent roar of passing planes. I heard this squirrel before seeing it. And clearly it saw me. Another squirrel was foraging on the ground…
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The Fields of Sweetgum
Just a part of one of the large spreads of fallen Sweetgum balls I’ve ever come across recently. Not pictured here are the Dark-eyed Juncos that were taking advantage of the windfall. The tiny Liquidambar styraciflua seeds are a big source of winter food for birds.
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Mimus polyglottos
And who hasn’t felt the side-eye of a Northern Mockingbird greedily claiming all the little pears of winter? Different day, same patch. A different tree this time: those red linden branchlets! Same bird? In this case, it was much colder so there some puffed-up feather action here. Great insulation, feathers. I wore down myself yesterday.
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Snow Hat
Within a short distance of the 25th St. entrance to Green-Wood, there are five of these big Bald-faced Hornet nests.A pair in neighboring trees. And yesterday, I found some of the paper of one of them strewn about. Now that’s what I call wrapping paper!
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Raptor Wednesday
Local falcons:American Kestrel. This one was a long avenue block from the Green-Wood linden. The same male, I think, perched atop Sunset Park High School.Another day. Just a few blocks away, atop the tall antenna at 5th/40th. A different male, I think, because of the much greater amount of russet on the breast (not just…
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The Tall One
The tallest trees here in the east are usually Tuliptrees (Liriodendron tulipifera), sometimes also called Yellow Populars. The tallest tree in Green-Wood Cemetery is one. According to their new map, “Alive at Green-Wood,” it’s 110 feet tall. This is the “toy camera” setting of my camera, for a change of pace. Samuel Morse’s remains are…
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Water, Water Everywhere
A toponym is a place name, a notion of maps, signs, and our heads but rarely actually written onto the land itself. These names are packed with the histories of the peoples who did the naming. Rivers in particular hold onto ancient names, however filtered by later folk, as this nation so amply demonstrates. George…
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Raptor Wednesday
In winter, my eyes are always looking for the anomalies in trees. There are plastic bags and balloons, unfortunately, as well as the more welcome clumps of leaves from old squirrel dreys, and sagging Baltimore Oriole nests persisting past their usefulness (at least to birds), and big footballs of paper made by wasps. And then,…
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Acer Color
Is that spotting something amiss? (Well, not amiss if you’re a fungus.) * Trump’s corporate puppet on the FCC is trying to end net neutrality, a disaster for democracy. So it’s “break the internet” in protest in advance of Thursday’s vote. Once again, I’d rather join people in the streets, but until then…
Backyard and Beyond 