birdspot

The weather yesterday was incredible, and Central Park was mobbed with people. I had to push through tourists at Strawberry Fields and fight my way over the Bow Bridge, but once in the wooded Ramble it was a little more manageable, and I looked for birds. It is amazing how much you can see there, even when the paths are crowded. There were two Black-crowned Night Herons sitting on the path at the Riviera, about twenty feet over a boat with two teenage boys who were pulling at the branches and trying to push each other overboard. I assumed the fracas would flush the herons, but this guy just opened one eye, looked down, scratched his cheek and let out a huge yawn.


There were sparrows and finches for all seasons: many of the winter birds are still here, and are temporarily joined by migrants and summer residents. The feeders are pretty maniacal right about now. There was proof positive that Juncos and Chipping Sparrows are not weird metamorphoses of the same specie because they were both present at the same time. There were a number of Swamp (top photo) and Song (bottom) Sparrows acting like feeder trash birds at both Evodia Field and Willow Rock. For sparrows: Eastern Towhee, Chipping, Fox, Song, Swamp, White-throated, and Dark-eyed Junco. For finches: Purple, House, Pine Siskin, and American Goldfinch.


And finally, I found a quiet spot where I followed a Ruby-crowned Kinglet around and amused myself with tangles for a while.

1975 cadillac, princeton, nj

There are some things to be found on the campus of Princeton University. For one, the Spring peepers are calling like crazy. There are also birds, and a bird sanctuary. There are overabundant, overly complacent deer, everywhere. There are parties in faculty houses that somehow meld astrophysicists with sleight-of-hand magicians and Middle East specialists and journalists, where astonishingly clear sound systems broadcast the likes of Jackie McLean and Cannonball Adderley over decanters of sherry and port in wood-paneled libraries, and where, when dinner is served, the food is all Lebanese mezza of astonishing variety. I have developed a sudden interest in Arak, cut with water and served with food. Last night was a very, very, interesting evening.

stuffed chipmunk, ny, ny

This is the newest addition to my collection of all that is sick and wrong. OK, well, it has set the bar a little higher than the assortment of bones and skulls I already have, and therefore might actually be the FIRST addition to a collection of that which is sick and wrong. It is stultifying how much I love this.

american coot, bolsa chica refuge, huntington beach, ca

I don’t know what has been spurring my avian foot fetish, but man, these are some cool feets. I was walking the far corners of Bolsa Chica and I startled a small group of coots, coming around a path bend, and most of them scuttled across without flying. The two that did fly looked like they might fall out of the sky at any moment. Not the most graceful, these.

bernie is a hurricane katrina rescue

there are aliens in niagara falls.

Birds from Central Park (more…)