Another autumn is behind us and soon, the snowy owls will be arriving. For now, enjoy a glimpse of these ruby-throated hummingbirds on their breathtaking journey across the continent, feeding non-stop as their wings flutter fifty times a second, their heart pumping at a dizzying seventy-two thousand beats per...
Read MoreA moon ago, I decided on a whim to go seek hummingbirds in Central Park. We had found them in the Conservatory Garden years back while living in Harlem. Even though the season was about right for their fall migration, the garden yielded no luck. Having gone for a walk in the Ravine and beyond to look for birds of prey, however, I ended up finding a spot along a little creek humorously called the Loch where hummingbirds hung out, attracted by jewelweed and bright crimson cardinal flowers. Sitting on a sloping slab of...
Read MoreStopping momentarily to rest and feed on their southbound journey, hummingbirds pay us a yearly visit in later summer and early fall. The return journey in spring somehow is more discreet. They might go as far as the Gulf of Mexico, which they will cross without food in what I can only compare to humankind going to the moon, their tiny heart beating twelve hundred times a minute. They are adorable, barely bigger than a cicada, and impressively difficult to photograph, given the speed at which they buzz from flower to...
Read MoreThe Western Cape is home to amazingly colorful birds, both in character and plumage. These were seen earlier this year in the Constantia garden and nearby Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden. Just as we name any garden chameleon Meeleon, any male Whydah is called Charlie. We don't like him much as he bosses everyone around like an overzealous Bobby on a London street. But maybe we should empathize with his burden of carrying such a tail around... Charlie The swees jump up to a grass strand that would otherwise not...
Read MoreA touch jealous about Marie's colorful reports of the Constantia garden birds, including a juvenile amethyst sunbird, I decided yesterday that South Africa would not monopolize the bird scene. Over the years, North America has yielded quite a few amazing feathered encounters, from New York's hummingbirds and horned owls to Vancouver's congregations of bald eagles. How could I top these? Easy. Find a snowy owl. Neither Marie nor I had ever been lucky enough to see one. The problem is, one does not exactly pull an owl...
Read MoreMarie saw two of them in territorial fights on Saturday, I found one on Sunday, and by the time we were picnicking in the garden on Monday after work, on a strangely dull and almost milky late-afternoon, the hummingbirds appeared to have abandoned New York City in search of healthier southern climates. Ruby-throated...
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