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 wasps, but this was the first time I’ve run across one…

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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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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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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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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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It’s been very wet this summer, so the fruiting bodies have had a field day. Here are a selection….

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Early instar of Brown Marmorated Stink Bug. So spiny! (Also tiny; I thought it was a tick at first, but it was moving too fast.) Another early instar, this time of Harlequin Bug. Late instar Magnolia Leaf-footed Bug. Tomorrow is my last Bugging Out in Green-Wood walk of the year. There are still tickets available.

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Spotted Sandpiper, in post-breeding plumage.

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