kestrels
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A Very Special Edition of Raptor Wednesday
Yup, it’s Thursday, but yesterday morning an American Kestrel caught my eye because it crossed the bow of the apartment windows and landed in a tree. It was where it landed that was out of the ordinary. Usually, the #BrooklynKestrels pair land up near the top of the tallest London Plane tree bordering the park.…
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Crowing
Fish Crows, by the sound of them, harrying the male American Kestrel. They did not seem to be making much of an impression. In other media, I didn’t do one of my listening tours this year because of you know what, but I did talk to WNYC’s Amy Pearl about listening to nature.
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Raptor Wednesday
In a London plane tree across the street, the American Kestrel male stashes prey. The nesting kestrels used this same spot two years ago, too. These last two pictures are from the same day, but different caches. Both, obviously, bird. Note that the kestrels will eat their prey’s feet, swallowing with the toes pointed outwards,…
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Raptor Wednesday
The local male American Kestrel. He’s working like a dog now that there must be nestlings in the hole in the cornice where the nest is. These photos, from Sunday morning, document him hunting and eating insects. From the size and color, I’d say roaches or waterbugs that he was grabbing off a couple of…
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Daily Raptor
The male was eating. He holds the gobbet of meat. Probably bird, although last week I saw he was munching on a small mammal, a baby rat or a mouse. (Photo through screen window.) And then, on Monday evening, the female was eating a lizard! I first became aware of Italian Wall Lizards because of…
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Raptor Wednesday
A Red-tail on the roof. Same building. We call it the solar building because of the solar panels on the roof. The female American Kestrel, on the left, is vocalizing. She’s noisy. In real life (vision), they’re tiny on this drain pipe housing. Even this is telephoto and cropped. A little closer, across the street.
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Raptor Wednesday
If you crossed Rear Window and The Birds… The local American Kestrels making more little falcons. Copulation lasts about ten seconds. Frequency seems to be key. They’ll do it multiple times a day, totaling hundreds of times over the pre-brooding period.
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Raptor Wednesday
Passing Bald Eagle. Coasting Red-tailed Hawk. On Saturday, there were four overhead at the same time. Merlin. I regularly saw them late last year, but this was the last time I spotted one, back in the middle of January. American Kestrel male perched on this 1960s vision of a future telecommunications center. Female and male…
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Sunday
For the third year in a row, American Kestrels are in the ‘hood! A male has been around all winter, spotted almost every day. But lately a female has appeared. Copulation was observed on 1/23 on a roof pipe just to the right of this chimney pot. No sign of a female again until this…
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Still More Squirrels
I don’t want anybody to get the impression that all the squirrels are being eaten. Ran into all these on Wednesday in a small patch of Green-Wood. In American Kestrel news: yesterday a female was seen from the windows here for the first time in months. She came to our attention because she was calling.…
Backyard and Beyond 