A few weeks ago a friend of mine who lives nearby posted a picture on Facebook of a caterpillar like the one above. What a cool caterpillar! Was I ever jealous! Then a few days later this one showed up at my place. So, yay! I got my own! It’s the caterpillar of the white-marked […]
Author: Julie Feinstein
I am a Collection Manager at the American Museum of Natural History, an author, and a photographer. I live in New York City. I recently published my first popular science book, Field Guide to Urban Wildlife, an illustrated collection of natural history essays about common animals. I update my blog, Urban Wildlife Guide, every Sunday.
Feisty Egrets
Here’s a lovely snowy egret with gold feet on display and plumes blowing in the wind. It’s in a great fishing spot near the outflow from a water gate at one of the ponds at Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in Oceanville, New Jersey. It’s a spot worth defending, apparently, and any unwary egret […]
Wendy’s Crows
Today I stood outside in the cold for a while watching this crow forage in the trash behind a Wendy’s fast food restaurant. I like the way it is puffing up its feathers. Another one flew over and then both left when I got too close, making dramatic silhouettes as they went. They are so […]
Equinox Eve
Tonight is the last night of winter! Doubtless these two raccoons I saw sitting in a tree last week looking down on snow-covered Central Park in New York City, will welcome the warmer season. Here’s my favorite welcome spring poem “When the Hounds of Spring” by Algernon Charles Swinburne: For winter’s rains and ruins are […]
Parti-colored Starling
Only kidding. It’s so cold and rainy outside that I spent most of it sitting in a comfortable chair playing games and some of it creating imaginary birds with Photoshop from my archive of bird images. A Bird Came Down the Walk by Emily Dikinson A bird came down the walk: […]
Duck Brush
Freezing temperatures and a head cold have kept me indoors for a few days. I spent some of that time learning how to make a Photoshop tool called a brush. I started with this photo of a mandarin duck (Aix galericulata) that I took on a warm autumn day at the Prospect Park Zoo last […]
Wreath of Sparrows
Wow — a bunch of European house sparrows, Passer domesticus, gathering grain. Are they in a wheat field? Nope. They are systematically taking apart an autumn wreath on the door of a Brooklyn brownstone. Looks a bit bare on the lower left, doesn’t it? A dozen more sparrows sat the on the steps below, waiting […]