1.15.2009

A Little Local Wildlife


In Our Backyard

Apparently, there are nearly 200 different species of birds identified each year in Prospect Park. Imagine! That's a lot of birds passing through the middle of New York City. Over the past few weeks, Mr. O'Kitten and I have been fascinated by an all-white pigeon mingling with the other birds in our backyard. At first I thought it might be an albino, but I can't tell whether or not it has red or pink eyes.


I like to think of every New York City block creating an enclave of wildlife, with its gardens or greenery, birds, cats, squirrels, mice and other critters living in a little ecosystem almost unto itself.

Almost in Our Backyard


Then last night on the news there was a bit about wild monk (or quaker) parrots living in Brooklyn.

Made in Our Backyard

Lucy, Monster Hat No. 16

Lucy likes trains, Abby Cadabby, snow, and books. When she grows up to be a big monster she thinks she would like to be a bus driver, an astronaut, a baseball player, and a fairy princess.

Lucy is made of KPPPM and Yarn Lust tencel-merino 50-50 sock yarn.

Lucy and Mackenzie, who is now two.

Bonus Material

Broken Piggy Bank by Veronika Nagy.

Make a monthly spending plan -- new at The Money Shot.


10 comments:

meemsnyc said...

We heard about the parrots living in Brooklyn, but we've never seen it before! We once saw a humming bird in my backyard in Greenpoint Brooklyn. We do occasionally see from time to time Red Cardinals in our backyard. And we get excited when we see a blue jay! We absolutely love bird watching.

Puss-in-Boots said...

How fantastic to have birds around you in the city. Usually it's just sparrows and pigeons. In Brisbane there are ibis which are real scavengers and become quite a nuisance. But there are also currawongs, magpies as well as sparrows...that's in the CBD. A little further out are a great deal more varieties.

Here in our semi rural surrounds of course we have heaps of birds, some I hear and am trying to identify with difficulty. I have yet to see them!

Chris said...

With how cold it's been, I haven't seen a bird all week...

Anonymous said...

I wonder if that all-white pigeon is a dove that someone released after a wedding???--Ashley

Obsidian Kitten said...

i think it's too fat too be a dove--hehheh! it's very pigeon-shaped. but you know, it *could* be...next time i see it i'll have to look more carefully.

Anonymous said...

I have an ailing-kitty question. Email me? llamas AT quesocabezafarm DOT com

Thanks,
Laura

Obsidian Kitten said...

i always wondered if there'd be hummingbirds in the city. people laughed at me when i put a hummingbird feeder up in hoboken--but i never saw any hummers there.

we certainly don't have as many birds (or types of birds) as we did back in michigan, but definitely many more than i would've expected in the midst of such an enormous metropolis.

i can't imagine trying to identify birds based on hearing (not seeing!) them!

mrspao said...

The kitties must love the birds outside!

Anonymous said...

Cute monster hat! And hat bearer. ;)

Wild parrots seem to gravitate to cities! Or is that adapt? I've always meant to look up our wild parrots on Telegraph Hill.

Severina said...

Did you guys behead all those pigeons???

The more citified downtown areas are mostly pigeons and starlings down here. And we got some all-white pigeons, some with tan spots and a couple of very cool sooty blackish ones. I suspect the fancy ones are escapees from local pigeon racers.

In the more residential neighborhoods there are doves (especially noisy in the spring), robins, bluejays, ravens & crows, and I've got a pair of cardinals on my block. I've seen more hummingbirds since I moved to the big, nasty city than when I was a kid living in the country. I don't think anyone planted the right kinda flowers so we hardly ever saw them.

In September I was waiting for the bus to go home from work and there was a big damn falcon of some sort trying to get ahold of the sparrows that were hiding in the hedges out front of the McDonald's. I almost missed my bus laughing at them.