Prospect Park
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Shroom
One of the polypore mushroom species, aging nicely in Prospect Park.
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We stand
on the wings of eagles.High about the columns at Grand Army Plaza, symbolic eagles provide a perch for even mightier real pigeons. These columns, with their pre-fascist fasces, were designed by Sanford White, whose post-Olmsted and Vaux entrance-way brought the rustic Victorian park into the grandiose Victorian end of the century (1892). Brooklyn-born Frederick MacMonnies,…
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Persephone
While failing to see the rare-for-our-parts Varied Thrush that has been in Prospect Park for a few days, I otherwise noted: two raccoons slowly uncurling high in a tree crotch; one darting chipmunk; a dozen turtles crawled up on shore and rocks of the Pools to warm up after so many water-chilled months; a Red-tailed…
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Problem Swans
With their long necks, Mute swans (Cygnus olor) can reach down to food that other geese can’t. Although loved by many, these swans are an invasive species, introduced to the U.S. to picturesque ponds and estates. Since then, they’ve escaped and established breeding populations in Prospect Park, among quite a few other places. Their aggressive…
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Lulled
The Lullwater looks calm this time of year. But submerged things are a-fin, and just on the other side of the Terrace Bridge, behind me, were three Hooded Mergansers, two Red-breasted Mergansers, a pair of Wood Duck, and several Ruddy Ducks, the males with electric blue bills. Titmouse, Cardinal, Nuthatch, Chickadee, Brown Creeper, Song Sparrow.…
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Checklist
Snowdrops: Check! Crocuses: Check! Witchhazel: Check! And half-a-dozen or so Red-winged Blackbirds, bringing the area around the Terrace Bridge to sudden, raucous life with their insistent “I am now here!” vocalizations: Check! It was interesting to observe these birds, all males. Two at the feeders presented variations in plumage, with one bird sill having some…
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Foxy
Six species of birds under the feeders in Prospect Park. The large sparrow here, second bird down from the top, is a Fox Sparrow (Passerella iliaca).This is one of the birds that visit us during the winter months from their breeding grounds in the boreal forests. We never get too many, but there should usually…
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Watering Hole
An open patch of water in Prospect Park’s Lake attracts everybody. The Ring-billed gulls — of which there were hundreds on the ice — had just taken off, leaving the Mute swans in charge. The crowd meant more fowl were on-shore and close to the path, grooming and resting. This allowed me to get up-close…
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Brooklyn Raven
Winter, especially at the tail-end of a bona fide cold snap like we’ve had most of the week, generally presents few surprises for the nature watcher. But this morning, as I wandered about Green-Wood Cemetery, I watched a Common raven (Corvus corax) and a Red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) contest the airspace overhead. The Red-tailed was…
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Downy
A Downy woodpecker (Picoides pubescens) working the bark for delicious invertebrate prey. The stiff tail feathers of a woodpecker help her (this is a female, lacking the red patch on the back of the head, trust me on this) balance on the vertical. Her feet have a zygodactyl pattern, two toes forward, two back, also…
Backyard and Beyond 