Brooklyn Birds, and Other Forms of Wildlife
I took a late night walk. On St. Charles, between Lincoln and St. Johns, there is a tree on that block where a bird -- I have yet to determine what kind -- sings a varied birdsong. It was so incredibly clear, and loud. One could almost feel the sound. It was truly amazing.
In the mornings, around 5:30 or so, there is a sudden beginning of birds chirping outside my window. I wonder if anyone has had either a bird sighting, or hearing. I saw a couple of Blue Jays last year, and Starlings, and of course the ubiquitous pidgeon. Sometimes I even see sea gulls -- especially on garbage days. And of course there is that small brown bird; where I come from they call them Grasskwits, but I have no reason why. That seems to be a very successful bird in urban settings. But sometimes I see cardinals. First I hear them, which, if the sound is unfamiliar to your ears, is much like a cable being smacked against concrete. It's a short hard whistling sound. The bird itself is a shock of red-orange. Feel fortunate to see it. They are many of them in Prospect Park -- which has a tremendous variety of birds, for those who are interested. I've seen hawks in Prospect Park.
In the mornings, around 5:30 or so, there is a sudden beginning of birds chirping outside my window. I wonder if anyone has had either a bird sighting, or hearing. I saw a couple of Blue Jays last year, and Starlings, and of course the ubiquitous pidgeon. Sometimes I even see sea gulls -- especially on garbage days. And of course there is that small brown bird; where I come from they call them Grasskwits, but I have no reason why. That seems to be a very successful bird in urban settings. But sometimes I see cardinals. First I hear them, which, if the sound is unfamiliar to your ears, is much like a cable being smacked against concrete. It's a short hard whistling sound. The bird itself is a shock of red-orange. Feel fortunate to see it. They are many of them in Prospect Park -- which has a tremendous variety of birds, for those who are interested. I've seen hawks in Prospect Park.
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All of these birds come visit my backyard and I wake up every morning to their singing :-)
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We hear birds every morning, and we have a mockingbird that hangs out on our roof and our neighbors' roof. I love it. They now emulate cell phone ringtones and car alarms...
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We are so happy to have the cardinals (even though their loud, pre-dawn calls wake us up), sparrows. mourning doves, robins, and the seasonal visitors like the the redstart, blue jays, chickadees and various woodpeckers. We even had a green budgie for a couple of weeks. We also had a banded turtle dove show up. The other doves tolerated it, but sternly rebuffed its amorous advances. It disappeared after about a year. It may have become a meal for the cooper's hawk that shows up every once in a while. The crows let us know when there's a hawk around. It's pretty amazing that our little block supports such a variety of bird life.
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I think what I heard was a mockingbird on St. Charles yesterday. Those are the ones with the many varied calls?
I am going to put a bird feeder in the backyard. I love the sound of birds. It's calming, and I think it does the neighborhood some good; sooths the soul. -
This morning I heard the birds begin their songs at precisely 4:38am.
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Mockingbirds are very common in Brooklyn & I hear them a lot in Sunset Park. On occasion they will also sing at night, usually around the shortest days of the year. They can run through a dozen bird songs in short order as if there was an entire aviary singing. Mockingbirds are not red however, cardinals are.
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Meet my friendly backyard woodpecker (can I still say pecker without getting a fluffy bunneh? Ha).
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Then I must have heard a Mockingbird. So apt.
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Whoa! Love the woodpecker video! It took some time for my eyes to orient and see it. It's worth the wait.
Here's an idea: Why not find some way of increasing the number of birds in the neighborhood? It could be as simple as installing birdhouses high amidst the tree branches, or something more gradual like planting perennial running plants which over time will create little clusters for birds to reside within.
In the distance I hear chirps. It's such a pleasure to hear it. -
^ that was as close as I could get with my little Flip cam. I kept hearing it and at first thought "woodpecker????" and then thought "nah".....he came back 3 days in a row and I finally figured out where he was. I have a TON of birds in my yard every day (and night) here in Windsor Terrace. Probably due to my proximity to the park and the cemetery
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I know further into Brooklyn --near the last stop of th enumber 2 train, there is an apartment building where some green parrots have resided for quite some time. I cannot recall where it is exactly; somewhere near Brooklyn College. I was walking around there, and I heard this happy racket. I looked up and there were about 5 or 6 green parrots clambering about in a space underneath an air conditioner. A passerby told me that they nest there (the area was filled with vegetation and small twigs) and the city had deemed it an enviornmental zone of some sort. I had a warm fuzzy feeling when I saw that.
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They are called monk parakeets and are also in Green-Wood cemetery - usually near the building at the main entrance on 5th/25th street. They got loose from a container ship years ago and now live in several areas in Brooklyn. I just saw them last week - pretty amazing. They are Brooklyn College's unofficial mascot as well.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monk_Parakeet -
The common house sparrow does resemble the "grassquits" of the Caribbean and points south. They are very aggressive nesters and sociable. My son found one today building a nest under my old air conditioner while he was moving it for me. I'd been hearing the bird chirping loudly on the windowsill all week, though I couldn't see him because of the AC unit. He was probably trying to entice a female to lay eggs in his nest.
Catbirds are also urban birds, they are skulking grey birds with black caps, and they sing many varied songs. Mockingbirds are the guys who sing at night, though. -
i believe european house sparrows are the only bird in the country it is legal to kill whenever. they are ruinous to native bird populations.
but they do tweet nicely.
mockingbirds tend to repeat their calls in threes -- making them dead-on at car alarms. starlings also mimic, but less well. (they were once called the poor man's myna.) cat birds have several calls, including the very feline one they're named for. i think their black caps are very smart.
if you want to increase bird populations, do what you can to plant bushes, etc., that provide winter cover and forage -- think evergreen things that have berries in winter. -
sweet tea wrote:
So funny story. Late one night/early one morning I'm awoken by family member telling me he can't sleep because of a car alarm going off
mockingbirds tend to repeat their calls in threes -- making them dead-on at car alarms. starlings also mimic, but less well. (they were once called the poor man's myna.)
HIM: Can't you hear that?
ME: What?
HIM: That. That car alarm has been going off for the last hour, ever since it started raining. Its driving me crazy. What kind of people just let their car alarms go off all night?
ME: I think that might be a mockingbird.
HIM: No, its definitely an alarm.
ME: I don't think so.
HIM: (getting more agitated) No, it is and I'm sick and tired of this shit. I'm going to put a stop to this shit right now.
ME: Yes, you should do that.
He gets dressed and walks out into the rain. I look out the window to see him stalking down the street. Five minutes later he is back, soaking wet.
HIM: I can't believe you let me go out in the pouring rain, when you knew it was a bird.
ME: (Innocently) Was it?
HIM: You're evil. -
I would like to rename this thread. I would like to call it 'Brooklyn Birds and Other Forms of Wildlife.' There are other animals that reside with us. It would be pretty cool to have record of those anecdotes as well. Does anyone know how to do that?
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^ since you created the thread, you can do it (otherwise you would need a mod to do it). Go up to your first post, and edit it (hit "edit" next to "quote") and you will see and be able to edit the title.
As for other wildlife, I have plenty of raccoons. Am happy to relocate them to Crown Heights if you want them :-) -
Thank you!
Done.
I have heard that someone has seen Raccons in an empty lot on Franklin Avenue between Sterling and Park Place. I have gone running in Prospect Park and I have seen them there all the time. Also I have seen hawks, rabbits, and possums in the park. I heard a story through a friend of mine that some pest control people surreptitiously do animal releases of raccoons in Prospect Park (and I guess in other parks) because they don't have the heart to kill the animals. As the guy said to me, 'How can I kill a creature that has hands?' -
I don't believe they are allowed to kill the raccoons unless they are thought to be rabid. I hear they also relocate to Green-Wood cemetery.
My neighbor had a possum in their garbage can. Scared the shit out of them and stayed there even after they tilted the can on its side. After a few hours it finally got out and ran down the street.
I have seen the hawks in the park as well.
I also like the black squirrels (well, really dark brown) which are seen in the park sometimes....but I don't want this to become another racial thread
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Hey, I LOVE the Black squirrels. I throw them the fisted BP (not British Petroleum)salute everytime I see them...
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Yeah raccoons over here too along with a buncha rats but last year there was a grass snake in my garden, no idea how it got there
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I am happy to see a number of stray cats in the evenings. I recall an old timer in Harlem telling me that the presence of stray cats was a good sign for any urban environment. This made no sense to me because if you have ever heard cats howling at night, it is one of the most grating things on the planet. He said that with cats on the prowl, it keeps rats at bay. There are plenty of rats to keep at bay, let me tell you.
At night, I often see rats scurry about digging through garbage containers. Also, if you have a car, BEWARE. I have seen rats climb up tires and then presumably find their way within the innards of the car. My guess is that they are entering the inside of cars in the same way mice might insinuate themselves within a home; by traveling along openings where pipes are.
I saw a beautiful pair of cats on Eastern Parkway betweden Bedford and Rogers on the most northen side of the street; first one, and then the other. My hunch is that they are a mating pair. One of the cats looked like one I saw on a poster around the neighborhood. Sometimes neighborhood people leave out cat food for some of the cats, but rats have no regard and often eat it. I saw this quite frequently last year. I have not seen that as yet this year. -
We have plenty stray cats too who drive the dogs NUTS!!!!! Still there are BOLD ass rats around! Did I mention all types of butterflies?
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What's interesting is that since this discourse, I am more aware of the birds that I hear.
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I wonder what wold happen if there were birdhouses built for the trees in the neighborhood? Would that foster a larger bird population?
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I saw two butterflies yesterday. One of them was definitely a Monarch butterfly (thanks PBS!) and the other was a small, white one with a yellow undertone. Both flitted about. The Monarch danced around my head, and the smaller one I saw later in the day just flitted about!
There is something joyful in the way butterflies fly. It's the fluttering and the rollicking they seem to do as they go through the air. It made me feel better just seeing them. I'm sure butterflies have bad days too -- but gosh, those two I saw made me appreciate the green of the world around me.
I think I've said this before but writing about nature in the urban setting we live in has made me more aware (and appreciative!) of the birds, the bees and all the critters in the trees... Despite the sirens and the helicopters and all of the aggregated tragedy, there are birds and butterflies in Brooklyn.
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MHA: I really like reading your posts about wildlife/birds in the neighborhood. There is a group that goes bird watching in Prospect Park, and while I have never gone myself, I hear from others that it is great. If you haven't already, you might want to check it out. http://www.brooklynbirdclub.org/
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Thanks, I will look into it.
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Last night I saw a most beautiful cat on Prospect Park between Classon and Washington -- closer to Classon. It was a black cat with just a touch of white on its chest; I believe it was male. He was quite friendly, and approached me with little hesitance. His eyes seemed to dilate in front of me and I was so taken with the gaze. There was no fear whatsoever. "You are such a beautiful cat," I said as he walked by just about an inch away from my legs. I felt tempted to touch his coat, but decided it was better to be safe than sorry.
His coat gleamed in the streetlight. It made my evening. -
MHA wrote: Last night I saw a most beautiful cat on Prospect Park between Classon and Washington -- closer to Classon. It was a black cat with just a touch of white on its chest; I believe it was male. He was quite friendly, and approached me with little hesitance. His eyes seemed to dilate in front of me and I was so taken with the gaze. There was no fear whatsoever. "You are such a beautiful cat," I said as he walked by just about an inch away from my legs. I felt tempted to touch his coat, but decided it was better to be safe than sorry.
Sounds like the cat from the convenience store on the corner of Classon and Park.
His coat gleamed in the streetlight. It made my evening.
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