I stopped by Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn this week to visit the locally famous parakeets. This group flew over and landed by me, sat and squawked for a while, and then flew deeper into the cemetery. Monk parakeets have been around Brooklyn for about forty years; the colony at Green-Wood is one of the largest […]
Tag: brooklyn
The First Real Day of Spring
One thing signals the start of spring to me — when the white-throated sparrows start to sing. So, according to me, spring started this past Wednesday when I heard the first one right outside my window. Today they were singing all over Brooklyn. The song is distinctive and once you know what it is you […]
Quiet Mockingbirds
When I picture a mockingbird, it often looks like the one below – sitting on a conspicuous perch with beak open and singing loudly. But mockingbirds don’t sing in winter. I have written about winter mockingbirds before – but every year I notice their seasonal personality change. For the last few weeks, as the weather […]
Spring Birds in Winter
Remember the polar vortex winter we had last year? This robin came to my window every cold morning of it with his feathers so puffed up he looked downright chubby. I fed him raisins for breakfast straight through until spring. He’s back! He (or so…
Pretty Pigeons
And a poem – Pigeons by Richard Kell They paddle with staccato feet In powder-pools of sunlight, Small blue busybodies Strutting like fat gentlemen With hands clasped Under their swallowtail coats; And, as they stump about, Their heads like tiny hammers Tap at imaginary nails In non-existent walls. Elusive ghosts of sunshine Slither down the […]
Ring-billed Gull Ready for Spring
This ring-billed gull, Larus delawarensis, is in breeding plumage; the bird’s head and breast are snowy white. I took the picture on the East River in Brooklyn last week. Can spring be far behind? This is an adult ring-bill in non-breeding plumage, taken a few months ago in the same place. Its head and neck […]
Along the East River
I took a cold walk by the East River today. Brant geese, Branta bernicla, were lunching on the lawn in Brooklyn Bridge Park. Brant are often mistaken for Canada geese, but they are different species. I’ve written about their differences; click here for that blog. The lawn the brant geese were trying to eat turned […]