Whilst slurping up nectar from Virginia Spring Beauty flowers, this fly gets some pollen stuck to its hairs.
Still the same flower, but should the fly venture into another VSB flower, some of that pollen may contact the stigma…but will it?
Lots of big American Bullfrog tadpoles rising out of the murk for a gulp of oxygen.
Minnows, too.
And sculling across the surface, a swift Hesperocorixa water boatman. This is either the 1,248th animals species I’ve documented in NYC for iNaturalist or the 1,481st, depending on how you ask iNaturalist to count.
Second sighting this year of an Eastern Phoebe. In past years, there were sometimes EP lingerers all through winter in Green-Wood. This winter, I hadn’t noticed a one until March 12. The one pictured here was seen March 17.
Dodging Blue Jays, a Cooper’s filled with somebody digests in a yew.
The strappy leaves of Virginia Spring Beauty (Claytonia virginica) can easily be overlooked. But do look closer:
This is Spring Beauty Rust/Puccinia mariae-wilsoniae. Virginia Spring Beauties come in a range of colors. The pink-flowered ones are more likely to be eaten by slugs. Wet springs, then, can result in fewer pink flowers. The white-flowered ones have more flavenols, which deter herbivory. But white flowered ones don’t necessarily prevail because they are more likely to be attacked by this parasitic rust. A given population of flowers can therefore switch back and forth in flower color-prevelence. Carol Gracie told this story well in her book Spring Wildflowers.
A few of these small wildflowers were blooming March 9th, but then it got cold again and they stopped opening up.
Spring officially arrived here late yesterday afternoon…
(American Goldfinch near a thistle-packed feeder.)
A window of bark has fallen off this European Beech/Fagus sylvatica, revealing the trail of beetles.
These are so irregular I think they’re woodpecker trying to get in rather than beetles trying to get out.
These are, I think, exit holes. But look closer:
A fine Lion’s-mane/Hericium erinaceus mushroom.
In roughly age/plumage order, younger to older.
Incidentally, you don’t need a weatherperson to tell you which way the wind is blowing if you have gulls around.
Backyard and Beyond 