Closing out the Holiday Season on Epiphany with The Twelve Birds of Christmas – Brooklyn Edition (OK, a couple of them are bugs, but let’s not quibble.)

FALCON

Merlin Falcon at Owl’s Head Park

SCAT

Scarlet Tanager at Owl’s Head 11/9/08 (very late)

RUSTY

Rusty Blackbird in Prospect Park (40% decline over the last 20 years)

OLIVE-SIDED

Olive-sided Flycatcher at Calvert Vaux Park

EYED ELATOR

Eyed Elator! Calvert Vaux Park

MONARCH MATES

Monarch sex at Calvert Vaux Park

HORNED LARK

Horned Lark blending in with gravel at Calvert Vaux Park

GOLDEN PLOVER

American Golden-plover at Calvert Vaux Park

BLUEBIRDS

Eastern Bluebirds at Owl’s Head Park

SANDERLING

Winter plumage Sanderling at Dyker Beach on Gravesend Bay

WILSON'S

Why does Wilson’s Warbler insist on showing me its rear? Owl’s Head Park

And the first good bird of 2009 (well, it’s early.) Can you pick it out among 700 gulls?

GULLS

Look closer, middle back, bigger than Ring-billed, smaller than Herring, darker than either, but not quite as dark as Great Black-backed…

GULLS2

Maybe from this angle…

LBBG

Yes it’s a Lesser Black-backed Gull on the Lake in Prospect Park; a good rarity in the City (of course there are plenty in Buck’s County PA, but in bird watching everything is context.)
- alex 1-06-2009 12:41 pm

alex i think it was the merlin falcon that landed in the backyard tree

it looked like this to me, remember i said it was mostly white belly, and thought it falcon-y
http://www.lorenwebster.net/mt-static/images/Merlin.jpg
- Skinny 1-06-2009 1:59 pm [add a comment]


I wouldn't take that Wilson's Warbler thing personally. Of course, since you mentioned context, I guess if you saw one like that in The Ramble it could take on a different meaning.
- jimlouis 1-06-2009 3:00 pm [add a comment]


thats the north side of a southbound warbler. (or visa viza)
- bill 1-06-2009 3:40 pm [add a comment]


You are smarter than you know, Skinny. Except that the picture you linked to is a Sharp-shinned Hawk, not a Merlin. I see that it’s the first Google Image result for Merlin, but remember the golden rule: don’t believe everything you see on the internets. When I went into the guy’s page it turns out someone had already corrected him, but the bad label still makes it into Google. In fact, a Sharp-shinned is more likely in the back yard than a Merlin, but if you thought it was “big” then it was probably a Cooper’s Hawk, which looks almost exactly the same as Sharp-shinned but larger. These two are Accipiters, bird-hunting hawks that can dart through tree branches; Merlin would prefer more open areas. Juveniles of all three are somewhat similar, but while Merlin and Sharp-shin are barely the size of a pigeon, Cooper’s is more crow-sized.
- alex 1-06-2009 6:09 pm [add a comment]


this was pigeon +
- Skinny 1-06-2009 9:51 pm [add a comment]





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