Received a message in December that a peregrine falcon has been spending a lot of time around Open Square.
On a weekend morning in early January I took a spin through my old neighborhood on my way to run an errand. It didn’t take long to find the falcon, feasting on a pigeon on top of a building on Front Street.
I didn’t have my ideal photo equipment in my truck. But, I did have a camera body and a 200mm lens — with some significant cropping, that was good enough to document the sighting.
I like to take different routes to work because I feel like it invites discovery. On Wednesday morning I decided to take a spin by the old Parsons Paper Mill site on Sargeant Street. Nearly a decade after a fire destroyed much of the mill, a neighboring business is expanding onto the site. The tangle of brick and machine left…
I headed out to the Forestdale Cemetery in Holyoke this afternoon to see if any owls are hanging around there this winter. The cemetery gates were already closed to vehicles when I arrived, so I parked on a nearby side street and planned to take a stroll around the grounds. I didn’t get very far. As I got out of…
A Peregrine Falcon over Hadley Mill Road in Holyoke, Oct. 25, 2015.
With no one home at the Red-tailed Hawk nest for several days, I went out Monday evening to see if I could find the fledgling somewhere in the neighborhood. To my relief, I eventually spotted it high atop a building on Suffolk Street. From there, it flew — in one continuous flight, more than a full city block — all…
The Red-tailed Hawks have been increasingly active at their High Street nest. And, Monday morning, they appear to have mated in a tree in Veterans Park. Photos from Monday morning below:
I’ve been anticipating the annual late fall / early winter return of Cooper’s Hawks to downtown Holyoke and, with that in mind, I set out today to see if I could find any. After striking out in Heritage State Park — a place where I often find at least one this time of year — I headed over to the…
As much as I grow attached to the neighborhood regulars — the Red-tailed Hawks, the Canada Geese, the American Kestrels — it’s always exciting to see a new bird in the city. The Eastern Towhee above is the first I’ve seen in Holyoke. It flew into a tree right in front of me at the end of an afternoon of…
I ran into a crew of about a half-dozen Golden-crowned Kinglets behind the Gill paper mill this afternoon. The one above landed right in front of me as I was trying to get a closer look at a Brown Creeper — which has the honor of being the seventy-fifth species I’ve logged downtown since 2011.
