
(Click to enlarge)
Marine Park Salt Marsh,
Brooklyn, New York
(Click to enlarge)
The young girl was extraordinarily patient with the swan, gently cooing and making slight flapping movements of her arms as if she, too, were a bird. She continued to make little gestures to welcome the swan who, in a trusting manner, gradually approached more and more closely. The girl and the swan were in direct communication with each other. All of the other strangers watching this close encounter, including myself, were mesmerized. When eventually the young girl walked off with her mother, her mother turned to her and said with amazement, “I didn’t know you could talk Swan.”
Marine Park Salt Marsh
Brooklyn, New York
(Click to enlarge)
I’ve been looking for this guy all year! A year ago, I caught a fleeting glance of him, but way too briefly to get a photo. With the advent of autumn, however, the Marsh bushes where he hides have been cut back–and this week I saw him running across his former stomping grounds to some still remaining bushes further off.
Ring-necked Pheasant
Marine Park Salt Marsh
Brooklyn, New York
(Click to enlarge)
This beautiful bird is an American Kestrel, sometimes called a sparrow hawk. It is part of the falcon family and it is the smallest of the raptors, about the size of a blue jay. It will eat, well, sparrows as well as mice, lizards and insects, and even starlings.
Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge
Jamaica, Queens
(Click to enlarge)
Terns are tough for me to identify specifically, so while I’ll guess they’re Common Terns, there are some other possibilities.
But I am eating my heart out that there wasn’t another one nearby so that I could title the post, “Tern, Tern, Tern…”
Marine Park Salt Marsh,
Brooklyn, New York