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Steamboats Are Ruining Everything

Steamboats Are Ruining Everything

A writer in Brooklyn

Category: birds

The last dad book

I reviewed Craig Fehrman’s This Vast Enterprise: A New History of Lewis & Clark for the 1 June 2026 issue of the New Yorker.

Posted on 25 May 2026Author Caleb CrainCategories American history, birds, dogs, exploration, Meriwether Lewis, the Northwest Passage, William Clark

Steps and perches

A brown-and-white shorebird raises one of its yellow legs in the Egyptian-hierograph style of walking

A large bird, black on top and white beneath, stands in water, its broad wings raised; its bill is bright orange-red near its face and black farther out, and the lower bill projects far beyond the upper one

A small bird with a white belly, a brindled back, and a light rufous wash on the front of its neck is swimming in water

A large predator bird, wings dipping down in flight, with a hooked beak and a dark eyeline

A small shorebird with a russet-brown back, a clear white belly, and yellowish legs inspects marsh surface for insects to eat

A bunny, pink ears up and flexed, pauses on a sidewalk, with its front paws just barely touching the ground

A close-up of a small perched bird with a gray face, a neat white eyering, a green cap, two white wingbars, and a white belly, as well as a grub in its beak

A small bird with an orange-and-russet face and a streaked breast leans over from its perch

A small yellow bird stretches up its neck as it looks skyward, while perched in a tree with lime-green leaves and samaras

A hummingbird with a white belly and a green cap sits at the end of a zigzag branch

A gray squirrel stands on its hind legs, its paws folded in over its belly, and looks to the side

A close-up of a small bird with a yellow eyebrow, a dark triangular patch on its cheek, and delicate streaking on the sides of its chest

A bird with a large gray head, a yellow belly, and reddish tailfeathers eyes the camera, while perched

A small black-and-white bird stands on a tree branch in profile, hit by the sun

A column of dirt particles and vegetation debris, kicked in the air by a just-departed warbler

Posted on 6 September 20256 September 2025Author Caleb CrainCategories birds, Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, photography, Prospect Park, rabbits, squirrels

Late spring 2025

wood-thrush-1768

canada-warbler-1902

northern-parula-1964

spotted-sandpiper-1999

warbling-vireo-2037

wilson-s-warbler-2053

bay-breasted-warbler-2150

common-yellowthroat-2531

indigo-bunting-2550

fork-tailed-flycatcher-2819

Posted on 18 June 202518 June 2025Author Caleb CrainCategories birds, photography, Prospect Park

Early spring, 2025

A woodpecker with a red chin and red crown and a raccoon stripe across its one visible eye is clamped onto a tree, which it has riddled so far with two bright holes

A small bird with a white belly and a slate gray crown and back is perched vertically but upside-down, its bill swiveled to 270 degrees

A mid-size bird with a black head, a gray back, and an orange breast is hunched over as it tugs a reluctant purplish annelid out of the soil

A strangely flat-faced bird with a gray, Squiggy hairdo and a white chest is perched at a slant, its beak open as it chirps

A small round gray bird looks up and to the side as the Calatrava-Oculus-like fiery orange crest on its head slowly closes

A warbler with a brown back, a white chin, a streaked chest, and pale pink legs stands on a gray rock

A brown flycatcher is perched in profile on a budding maple

A hawk with a brown back and rich, streaked breast looks away momentarily from the woodpecker that she is eating

A hawk with navy blue wings and an orange-and-white-barred chest leans over the smaller bird that he's eating, a sad pink claw of which stretches out to the side

A small bird with wide white spectacles, a bluish head, a greenish back, and yellowish flanks stands in profile on a branch

A golden-brown-and-white-streaked bird, holding a half-moon shape, is perched on top of a spray of slippery elm samaras

A warbler with worm-colored legs, a brown back, a slightly speckled chin, and a streaked yellowish belly stands on a rock

A pair of ducks are paddling across a greenish pool; the female, on the left, is a brown-and-white brindle, and the male, on the right, has darker tailfeathers, a blue head, and a wide vertical stripe in front of his eye

Through a matrix of branches over water, a brown-and-beige fishing bird with bright orange beak and legs frowns with Samuel Beckett's frown

Posted on 1 June 2025Author Caleb CrainCategories birds, earthworms, photography, Prospect Park, trees

Late winter

white-breasted-nuthatch-0535

wood-duck-male-0710

red-throated-loon-0609

downy-woodpecker-0572

hooded-merganser-0345

double-crested-cormorant-0447

white-throated-sparrow-0506

common-merganser-0493

greater-white-fronted-goose-0684

european-goldfinch-0648

Prospect Park, 11–14 March 2025

Posted on 15 March 2025Author Caleb CrainCategories birds, photography, Prospect Park

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