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.