Ten Year Blogiversary

     Somehow a photo memory came up and made me realize, I've kept this silly blog up and running for 10 years. Where was I 10 years ago... I thought about this today on my way out to bird, while riding my bike down Flatbush Avenue. 

    Ten years ago I wasn't even 30, I was at the very start of my education career, working as an educator at the Central Park Zoo. In my daily commute the Manhattan and even in little walks through Prospect Park I realized there was a decent amount of wildlife to see here. Of course, primarily in the avian form. And so I began this little personal endeavor of keeping this blog mostly for myself, but also anyone who happened upon it. Also, ten years ago, I was sharing a snowy owl view, alone with my husband and no one else. A rare occurrence these days, to share a snowy without any other observers.

    In that time I've had many a life changes, both big and small. A near-death accident, a number of changes in my career, challenging myself in a number of ways for my own personal growth, home ownership, and of course, motherhood. Wildlife and birds especially have always been a constant throughout it all. 

    Today I went down to Floyd Bennett Field, rode my bike down as the temperatures today were tropical in comparison to the two days prior. There also was a bird or two to be seen...

Lucky to see it, and get a subpar shot, a Lapland Longspur was out at Floyd today among the Horned Larks.

It was a handsome one too, looks to be a non-breeding male with those flashes of chestnut on its neck.

Felt lucky to get a look, this is my second Lapland Longspur, but my first in Brooklyn! While these birds are not uncommon to open spaces in the winter, they are not regulars around here. These birds will migrate to the tundra to breed in the Arctic.

Floyd was pretty quiet, but after a walk through Ecology Village, I decided to stop at a puddle that is ever present fed by some water source. I sat and decided to let the birds come to me. And that they did!

This puddle brings bird in as the place is surrounded by salty water, so a freshwater puddle that is always there is gold. A bird needs to drink!
Mostly yellow-rumped warblers, like this one, came in with little to no care about me being there too.

Once the warblers signaled all was clear, the robins spilled in.

And rightfully so on high alert. While standing here a red-tailed hawk, a merlin, and a Cooper's hawk flushed up all the birds with some close swoops.
Since the water is seemingly always flowing, it probably didn't fully ice over even with the cold.

I also hoped this would happen, because it happened here once before...

A pair of red-breasted nuthatch came down to quench their thirst.

The water source also makes it nice to see these tree top birds at or below your regular line of sight.

The water source also helps you find the odd bird out. A few catbirds always hang around and overwinter. So this gray catbird is probably one in a handful overwintering at Floyd Bennett Field. It came down, took a bath and then found a perch to floof up and dry off on.