Van Cortlandt Park

Took a trip up to Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx. Aside from the hundreds of geese and ring billed gulls, crows and sparrows were in abundance. I did not have any luck in locating any owls, but I did have a few surprises. It started with this gal.




Based on the slate gray back, yellow eyes and size of this bird, I'd make this out to be a second year female Cooper's Hawk. Her presence kept the song birds low and concealed, but I did manage to see this lifer.



On lake, there were squadrons of honking geese coming and going.


And a Great Blue Heron.




There was also a female Hooded Merganser.

And a Green Teal (another lifer).

This pair however, ruled the roost.

The Windhover

I caught this morning morning's minion king-
dom of daylight's dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding
Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding
High there, how he rung upon the rein of wimplig wing
In his ecstasy! then off, off for on swing,
As a skate's heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: the hurl and gliding
Rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding
Stirred for a bird,--the achieve of, the mastery of the thing!









Keeeyaaar!

Harlem on the Rise!

Just finished a rough cut of my urban wildlife documentary about the Cathedral of St. John the Divine red-tailed hawks. It was filmed over the Spring of 2006 and covers the development and fledging of two of their chicks. It's the first movie I've ever made so its kinda raw, but I'm proud of it! Anyone wishing a copy, just email me at yojimbot at gmail dot com with your home address and I'll mail you a DVD. In the meantime, here's a selection from the the Highbridge Park male on top of City College.

Revelations

"And I saw seven angels which stood before God, and to them were given trumpets."

In a telling coincidence, the night of our President's announcement of a major troop "surge" in Iraq, a comet appeared in the night sky. This "heavenly body", the comet McNaught, was recently discovered over the summer and has astonished astronomers with its apparent magnitude--by some estimates -8.8! It is even brighter than it's herald, Venus the Evening Star, and is visible for only two more days. In the book of Revelation, comets are known as portents of doom and are classified according to shape. In the case of McNaught, it is known as a "trumpet" due to is long, straight tail. After listening carefully to the President, he clearly believes what he's doing is the right thing. But after watching the skies and reading the report at the end of this post...it all seems to me a very bad omen.

At sunset tonight I went to my roof to photograph the comet and to observe it with my own eyes.
It was no trouble to find as the sun went down.

A close up.

Here it is in context, to the upper right hand corner.

Just then, the resident RTH came home for the evening, skimming the rooftops.


And now on to the link...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=427997&in_page_id=1811
"And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God."