Category: Nature

It can begin quite innocently once you have successfully identified your first bird. Perhaps you even “came out” and told someone, “This morning I learned that the bright red bird that has been waking me up by incessantly singing outside my window is called a Northern Cardinal.

The orange and blue back of a flashy male American Kestrel. A Kestrel taking a dive from a West Village water tower. Looking up at an American Kestrel on the wing

Just before I head down the stairs to the subway, a Red-tailed Hawk soaring high overhead casts a shadow.

That was the scene on a recent sunny Friday afternoon in Central Park. The “Best Show in Town” is the Bathing Rocks at the southeast corner of the Pool at 103rd Street. This Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux rustic waterfall creates the perfect arena for watching bathing birds.

Losing or breaking feathers can be a disaster. Birds’ lives depend on flying. It’s not like they can order a replacement set and have them overnight expressed to their door. It takes months to grow new ones.

As I head north along the promenade, a gray blur swoops in front of me, landing at eye level on a branch just ahead. Excellent. It’s an Eastern Phoebe, always one of the first returning birds of the spring.

Spring Crocus Flower By Joy and Brian Pape The crocus reminds us that no matter how harsh the...

By Keith Michael  BIRD OF THE YEAR 2022. A picture perfect Yellow Warbler. All Photos by Keith...