The cold earth slept below; Above the cold sky shone; And all around, With a chilling sound, From caves of ice and fields of snow The breath of night like death did flow Beneath the sinking moon. The wintry hedge was black; The green grass was not seen; The birds did rest On the bare […]
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.
Winter Robin is Back!
On Friday afternoon, before the big snowstorm started, a robin showed up at my window. When I opened it to throw a few raisins on the porch for him, he swiftly flew to the work surface on the side of the barbecue grill that’s right next to the window. That’s where I fed a winter […]
Neighborhood Hawk
This young red-tailed hawk visited Cadman Plaza Park in Brooklyn Heights on Saturday. It got this head forward alert look whenever a squirrel or dog came near. I’ve seen red-tailed hawks eating squirrels in New York trees before, but not this day. Note the brown striped tail, indicating that it is immature. The famous red […]
Happy New Year!
My creature of the year award for 2015 goes to the neighborhood favorites — Brooklyn‘s monk parakeets! The monk parakeet, Myiopsitta monachus, is also called Quaker parrot or parakeet and a few other names. There are colonies of them in Queens and Manhattan and elsewhere in New York City, but my favorite flock lives in […]
Grackle Pros and Cons
Common grackles stay in New York year round. I saw one the other day, striding around on its long legs and looking cocky. Whenever I see one I take a moment to admire its glossy colors. I usually see a single bird in a park, or just a few at a time — they look […]
Breakfast Flock
In Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Richard Bach wrote about a gull that “… was not bone and feather but a perfect idea of freedom and flight, limited by nothing at all.” I watched a flock of gulls dashing and darting at the outflow of an open watergate, feeding on something in the roiling water. I couldn’t […]
Dabbling for Dinner
These Canada geese are tipped over and reaching down with their long necks to gather food plants from the bottom of the shallow pond. The one that’s right side up in the back is a designated sentinel; that’s a goose thing — they take turns watching for danger. Every time you look at a flock […]
Cicada Killer
At about an inch and a half long, the cicada killer is one of our larges wasps. Their huge size makes them look dangerous, but they are usually not aggressive and do not often sting us. They are solitary wasps that live alone; they lack the hive-defending sting-whatever-comes-close attitude of the yellowjackets they are sometimes […]