Observations, ideas, and wonderings on birds encountered in the landscape.
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Summer Season with the Baltimore Orioles
The Baltimore Orioles are in town, and I don’t mean just the ones playing away games at Yankee Stadium this past week. I’m referring to the all-star birds of orange and black, joining the major league Cardinals and Blue Jays above the athletic fields and all around the edges of Inwood Hill Park. Most Baltimore… Read more
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Listening to the American Redstart
Like most warblers, the American Redstart is a petite bundle of energy unwilling to sit still for pictures. It appears in quick flashes, a blur of black and orange (the male) while flitting from tree to tree to forage for insects. Though dressed in the colors of Halloween (a frequent characterization), American Redstarts are rarely… Read more
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A Black-throated Blue on the Old Green Hill
I heard the song of a Black-throated Blue Warbler on Sunday morning, an amusing sound that is sometimes translated in the field guides as “please-please-SQUEEZE-me.” (Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds of North America, Eastern Region, 1977) With their midnight blue coloring, a black throat, and white underneath, these birds are both pretty… Read more
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When the Tree Swallows Come Back to Northern Manhattan
In the recent springs I have observed them, Tree Swallows have returned to the same place at the corner of the Salt Marsh path in Inwood Hill Park. They perch on an old tree branch that has fallen over into the water. In the background you’ll see the Henry Hudson Bridge. The spot is almost… Read more
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Birdwatching at Sunrise
One of my favorite vintage books, The New Field Book of Nature Activities and Hobbies by William Hillcourt, first published in 1950 by G. P. Putnam’s Sons, devotes a chapter to birdwatching. I own the 1970 edition. Hillcourt recommends what to wear – clothes of drab hues in the blue/green/gray range but no white as… Read more
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Leaf Out: Spring in the Old-Growth Forest
The story thus far… Just six weeks ago, the trees in the forest were bare, but now they are so covered in leaves that it’s hard to see the birds. In early March it was easy to follow the flight of hawks and of the littlest chickadee. The resident Blue Jays, almost always easy to… Read more
Birds of Inwood 