December 22, 2025
Christmas 2025
Brooklyn Christmas Bird of the Year: Brown Pelican
Pelicans are rarely seen in Brooklyn. Only small numbers make their way this far north, and are most often seen from ocean beaches during summer. For reasons uncertain, this year multiple birds have been around during the holiday season; I saw a string of 14 passing over Gravesend Bay towards Coney Island on December 10th, followed by a single bird that passed directly over my head. An auspicious rarity to mark the Christmastide.
December 22, 2024
Christmas 2024
Brooklyn Christmas Bird of the Year: Red-Shouldered Hawk
Red-shouldered Hawk is not common in the city but as a regular winter visitor may be encountered with the good fortune of the season, like this one perched on a south Brooklyn streetlamp.
December 24, 2023
CHRISTMAS 2023
Brooklyn Christmas Bird of the Year: Purple Sandpiper
Purple Sandpipers are reliably present at Christmastime each year on the wave-washed rocky waterfront of my Brooklyn neighborhood along the Verrazzano Narrows. They breed in the far north, and Brooklyn is their idea of south for the winter; they arrive around Thanksgiving and stay into the spring. It’s their tradition.
December 21, 2022
December 23, 2021
On the Color Wheel
Red and Green
Are opposites
But the technical term is Complimentary Colors
They call across the Spectrum
And vibrate in one another’s presence
In a time of too much opposition
Remember how Red and Green
Resolve their conflictConjoining as the
Colors of Christmas
August 15, 2021
Today is the 100th anniversary of my Mother's birth.