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New Bee
Carpenter-mimic Leafcutter Bee/Megachile xylocopoides on goldenrod at Fort Tilden last week. This looks like the first New York observation on iNaturalist. Last year, one was seen a little further north in Wayne, New Jersey. They’ve been a more southern species, but may be expanding northward. Here with I think is an Eight-spotted Fairy Bee. Goldenrod…
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Salmagundi
Just some miscellaneous stuff from the photo pile of late… This big makes for a Common Raven. Black and white fur… must be skunk. Not Davy Crocket in a tree. Southern Yellowjacket/Vespula squamose nest entrance. I’ve seen a few of these wasps over the years, but this was the first time I’ve run across one…
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Beach Salts?
Some bumblebees on the beach, presumably licking salts and perhaps other minerals off the seaweeds. I don’t recall ever noticing this before. The seaweed was tangled with the dead Horseshoe Crab I posted about on Tuesday, so first I thought they were scavenging the corpse. But of course, they’re bees, that is, wasps who gave…
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Raptor Wednesday
If we were in Florida, we might be reminded of a Snail Kite… But this is plainly a Red-tailed Hawk. Is this very long upper bill a manifestation of Avian Keratin Disorder? There are still tickets available for my program on the raptors of Green-Wood on October 3rd.
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Book Gills
This dead Horseshoe Crab presents an unusual view of the animal’s gills. Looking a bit like the pages of the book, these membranes are where gasses can be exchanged between blood and water.
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Monarch Monday
Laying an egg on Common Milkweed. Then doing a few more. Unfortunately, these plants looked like they had been sprayed with a herbicide. Damn it! Elsewhere, a day earlier, this one looked ready to pupate. Another caterpillar.
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