Leisurely Weekend Birding

    I'm not really feeling the need or urge to chase after birds that I need for my list so I'm birding the way I like. On Saturday I head out to Floyd Bennett Field with my bike and walked the community gardens and across to the beach grass nursery. A lovely array of sparrows and sparrow eating raptors made that a lovely little outing.

    Today I wanted to get out birding with the kiddo and so we spent almost 2 hours out in Green-Wood Cemetery, not only seeing birds but birders too. Once again, she was quite obliging to exploring and using her stroller and moving at a pace that she and I could compromise on. We saw some pretty wild things and had a lovely time in nature together.

    Next week we will be leading a bird walk for families with young kids at the Marine Park Nature Center with the Feminist Bird Club. We will do some color seeking and scavenger hunts, will for sure be a great time!

A little CW for photos, there are photos of a heron with its frog prey. The frog is in the heron's mouth, nothing gory, but for those who would rather not, when you get to the red-breasted nuthatch, stop.

Before even getting out to Floyd Bennett Field yesterday, I stepped outside and saw some birds!
A pair of quaker parrots landed in the street tree outside our home.

They seemed to be nibbling on the stems and softer twigs. I love these parrots, really enjoy whenever I see them.

And in our native plant garden, we have been seeing rube-crowned kinglets, just like this one. This one sat and ate, happily even as my daughter watched it.
I wish they came by sooner to pick off all the aphids.

A pair of sharp-shinned hawks were circling over head. Even in flight those big eyes stand out. Also note the squared tail and how there is a slight bend at their wrist. Cooper's hawks aside from being bigger, have a straight-winged look that when soaring, the resemble a cross.

In this angle, you can even see that other sharpie clue, where if you drew a line from their head to their wrist, they are nearly in line. This would not be with a Cooper's hawk.

Then, a Cooper's Hawk flew in and gave a good comparison.
And the Sharpie was not pleased. They repeatedly dive-bombed the Cooper's Hawk, very displeased with its presence.

A little close dive prompts the Coop to flip and show its talons in defense.

Very cool behavior to watch overhead and also a nice comparison between two very similar looking birds, especially when not in the same frame!

Below the hawks, their potential prey was keeping close to the thick shrubs and grass, coming only to the edges to forage. Including the adorable and tiny field sparrow.

Over near Ecology Village, on a defunct backstop of a baseball field, a palm warbler perches among some perfectly matching yellow berries.

The beach grass nursery was hopping with sparrows, lots of savannah sparrow, song sparrow, a few goldfinch tossed into the mix and a number of swamp sparrows like this one.

Along the edges of the grasses bordering the building at ecology village had a ton on sparrows and other birds foraging in the grasses at the edge to the wild growth.
Here, a field sparrow temporarily perches on a bike rack, giving a glorious look at all its cuteness.

At the higher reaches of the same bike rack, a yellow-rumped warbler makes a temporary perch and then joins the sparrows in the grasses below.

In the sparrow flock were a number of dark-eyed juncos. A sure sign of winter coming our way, and also, a sparrow!

Upon arriving to Green-Wood Cemetery with my daughter, we were delighted to stumble upon 3 or 4 winter wren on the winter walk path. She got to see them and exclaim "baby bird!" as every small bird is a baby to her.
This is the only photo I got and it made me laugh, to get its but and tiny tai' and a single heart-shaped leaf.

My daughter LOVES the Nibo Mausoleum and so we spent a bunch of time admiring the lion statues and walking up and down (and up, and down, and up, and down) the steps to it. And in spending so much time, I got to enjoy a little red-breasted nuthatch  who hopped out atop one of the mausoleum spires.

There are a lot of these guys around already, since August even!
(not complaining!)

I love their tiny little calls.

If you don't want to see a predator-prey interaction, you should stop scrolling.
But if you do, my kiddo was able to watch this, nothing gory.

This great blue heron won BIG.
That is a hecking huge bull frog and it took this bird a minute to get it positioned right to go down the hatch.

I was pretty impressed at how it could keep a hold on a big, slimy frog!

Eventually the frog succumbed to the heron and in a few gulps, two large back feet were all we saw as it went down the gullet. 

World Migratory Bird Day 2022

     While my bird outings have changed in wild ways over the last three years, this was a lovely World Migratory Bird Day. Today I took my daughter with me to Green-Wood Cemetery. The whole way there I thought about how our outing could go one of two ways; one where my kid runs amok  and needs to be escorted out be security or one where she has her own agenda in what she wants to explore, but tags along for the ride. It was for sure the latter scenario and with two decent snack sessions in our nearly two hour time out, I'd say it was a really delightful outing for what it was. It was plenty birdy, so enough to see and hear, even while on the move, plus bonus puddles to splash in, giant spikey seeds of all kinds to explore, and lots of acorns to collect. Plus stairs, the kid loves walking up and down stairs-- although I quickly learned that some stairs are not good to explore, due to their uneven nature and causing a (very) minor spill. A memorable outing for sure, the cards I was drawn today were in my favor, because doing anything with a toddler is always a gamble. And the fact I spent two hours out and never once had to carry my child, damn, that alone is a birding with toddler win!

    I also did some birding yesterday before work at Marine Park and again, in one hour, it was delightfully birdy, in the barely 1 mile I walked, I saw a decent amount and found great satisfaction in that.

At Marine Park a Double Crested Cormorant dries its wings.

It seems like kinglets are everywhere, here is a ruby crowned kinglet. Lots of them bouncing around at the Salt Marsh Nature Center.

I noted some commotion in the skies, a dove flying with a slightly larger hawk in pursuit. The dove lived to see another day, as the Cooper's hawk came back around and took a perch. It doesn't look disappointed in things at all.

Always love seeing brown creepers! The tree it was on was full of tree crawlers, the creeper at the tree base, a few white-breasted nuthatches on the lower limbs, and high up, a yellow-bellied sapsucker worked on some sap wells.

Such tiny little things, perfectly plumed to match mossy bark.

I wasn't fast enough with my camera to capture a Lincoln's Sparrow in the chain link, so this song sparrow will suffice. Lots of song sparrows and even saw my first white-throated sparrow and dark-eyed Junco today, sure signs of winter.

A blackpoll warbler I was able to pick out from all the (very many) yellow-rumped warblers.

A female belted kingfisher was busy fishing at this point. But now with the osprey family gone, she also uses the osprey platform as a perch for herself, near to the green bridge at Marine Park.

As I decided it was time to start my day.... I found some trees that literally just had warblers hanging off of them. Damn.

A couple of peeks at mostly black-throated green warblers...

... Northern parulas (lots of them)...

And more black-throated green warblers, and even a few pine warblers (Not pictured). But dang, their yellow colors sure do make sense seeing them up against green leaves fading into yellows.

On to today, I am also really excited that I carried my camera around and took some pictures. Not as many, but I got a few and when you go birding with a little kid, you celebrate every little triumph!
An american Godfinch takes advantage of one of the many native plantings at Green-Wood Cemetery.

Before we decided upon Kestrel as a name, I was pushing for Phoebe. And I think about that every time I see phoebes. 
I love you, Eastern Phoebe, but I like Kestrel better.
And yes, we did see a kestrel today.... eating another bird.

This was the best part.
We had TWO common nighthawks flying overhead. My daughter was unimpressed as she worked a cup of goldfish crackers. But I was very excited to see these birds and add them to my year list.

After this prize, I promised the kiddo a trip to the playground and we only extended our wonderful time outdoors.
I'll be leading a family nature walk later this month, looking forward to sharing some nature with everyone, and Kestrel will be there to help (I hope)!

Birds are good for you.

    The last week and a half I was challenged in a way I had never been before. And without disclosing too much information, it weighed heavy on my energy, my mental capacity, and my heart. The challenge came to a close yesterday and I had taken today off, with plans to need to care for the kiddo while her daycare is closed for Yom Kippur. Maybe it was the universe coming to my aid, my mom offered to take Kestrel and that left this open day where I could do whatever I wanted and just be easy on myself.

    Of course the one thing that centers me, brings me happiness, and just cuts out all the distraction of life is birding. I hate birding on a cloudy day, like, I really hate it. But I took the opportunity to go outside and just see a bird. I didn't set an expectation or have any hopes, any bird would do. And damn, this was a great mindset to have because I am so happy I went, saw birds, and somehow made the choice to come home, just as the sky opened up upon my arrival home.

    I got a nice break today and now I'm ready for what tomorrow brings, and its all thanks to birds, including the ones you'll see in this post!

A field sparrow pops out to stare me down at Floyd Bennett Field.
Field sparrows are incredibly cute.

The ground was literally crawling with savannah sparrows. They wove in and out of tufts of grass, just eating as much seed as they can.

My favorite is when they stretch and do little hops to grab seeds that are juuuuust out of reach.

Also, I hope you like sparrows. Because it's sparrow season.

Here is a song sparrow. Skulking around in the shrubs and overgrowth surrounding the area the savannah sparrow was foraging.

I was so excited to have clear views of a swamp sparrow.
And then it did this funny yawn and I was even more excited!

🥱

And then they stepped forward even more. A lovely little sparrow, swamp sparrows have some really lovely browns to them, like a dark honey.

Swamp sparrows are like most sparrows, they try to hide and those colors are just superb for it.

Earlier in my visit I saw one merlin perched on a bare twig.
And as I left, I noted there were now TWO merlin, sitting 15 feet away from one another.
These birds also like sparrows... but to consume.

I will never fault them for their bird eating ways. I love raptors.
But what a lucky capture to really appreciate the beauty of this little huntress.
All these little birds were a wonderful way to clear my head, get some fresh air, and get home before the rain started up again. I felt fortunate to have this time today.