Cardinals finally let me see them raise babies in Brooklyn

Cardinal Nest

Cardinals feed babies fresh bugs in nest you could see if you knew where to look in Prospect Park.

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Monster quest: finding the giant snapping turtle of Prospect Park

giant turtle on grass by pond

Enormous snapping turtles lurk in Brooklyn lakes but emerge this time of year to lay eggs. Oddly, NY state is about to allow trapping, hooking and clubbing them to death.

Keep reading Monster quest: finding the giant snapping turtle of Prospect Park–before NY legalizes trapping them

Reader question: what's up with this squirrel's raggedy fur?

squirrel with white patchy fur

This VA squirrel has white, gray and rusty fur at all different lengths and angles. Can you figure out what’s wrong?

Keep reading Reader question: what’s up with this squirrel’s raggedy fur?

Goose from Greenland has many Brooklyn fans, but Canada geese not among them

A Barnacle goose that somehow migrated from Greenland onto the wrong continent is beloved by Brooklyn birders, but shunned by Canada geese.

Keep reading Goose from Greenland has many Brooklyn fans, but Canada geese not among them

Moths drawn to lights, rotten beer, often against their best interests

Lepidopterist, or mothers, use a concoction of beer, bananas and molasses to bait certain sap-eating moths. Otherwise, try a bright light on a cloudy, moonless night.

Keep reading Moths drawn to lights, rotten beer, often against their best interests

Would you be nicer to pigeons if they were green?

Artist Julian Charrière gave the despised pigeons of Venice’s St. Mark’s Square a flamboyant makeover in green, blue and red. Tourists went nuts for the pretty birds. What did the other birds think?

Keep reading Would you be nicer to pigeons if they were green?

Gilibrand rushes killing geese at refuge near JFK, where they haven't hit a plane in nearly 2 years

run, geese, run

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand says we need to hurry up and kill Canada geese at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge near JFK because bird-plane strikes are up–but Canada geese haven’t hit planes there in years.

Keep reading Gilibrand rushes killing geese at refuge near JFK, where they haven’t hit a plane in nearly 2 years

More of Brooklyn's secret owl family

Brooklyn great horned owls branching–hopping around their nest tree, thinking about taking their first flight.

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Brooklyn hatches its first native great horned owlets in a century

Two great horned owlets on nest

The Prospect Park owls have hatched two chicks that can are now big enough to flap around and think about flying. They’re the first raised in the borough since records were kept.

Keep reading Brooklyn hatches its first native great horned owlets in a century

Macho house sparrows

Two male house sparrows were in such a brawl last week my friends and I wondered if they were somehow stuck on each other, like elk with locked antlers. They were rolling around in the gutter, beaks clasped on each other in a seeming death match. My friend Sam picked them up to separate them. They just flew across the street and continued fighting.

I’m sure it was a battle for a mate or maybe who gets to move into the best lamppost in Park Slope. This is why people hate it when sparrows show up in their bird houses: they’re really aggressive about kicking out any bird they perceive as an intruder, going as far as destroying eggs and chicks of native birds.And how they invaded North America.

SEE ANIMALS IN THE NORTHEAST (NY, NJ, MD, MA, ME, NH, VT, CT, RI, PA) Where to SEE WEIRD BIRDS (All the interesting birds: pelicans, puffins, prairie chickens, vultures, hummingbirds)

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