There are a number of caterpillars that are camouflaged as twigs, and when disturbed will pose like so. This one was eating in the low-hanging branches of a Pin Oak. This has been identified as a Toothed Phigalia Moth/Phigalia denticulata. I await confirmation of that. Today’s 10:30 Bugging Out in Green-Wood still has spaces (until…

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Methodically devouring their greens, two larval sawflies demolish a Quaking Aspen/Populus tremuloides leaf. I’m not sure which species these are; they seem to be the second sawfly species I’ve seen feasting on these aspens. The other species eats a half moon from the leaf and then takes shelter in a turned over edge of leaf.…

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I was eating a sandwich standing up by the kitchen window when suddenly a young Bald Eagle flew into my view followed by a crow. They were closer than the building across the street, right over 6th Avenue and at my 4th floor eye-level! Hurrying to clean my hand and grab my camera, I got…

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Like cotton-candy splashed with raspberry juice, Woolly Catkin Gall Wasp/Callirhytis quercusoperator bunches up the flowers of a Northern Red Oak. Meanwhile, on a Scarlet Oak, it’s mostly white. These are created by tiny wasps that take control of the plant to induce this unique growth on the catkins. The wasp larvae grow up inside, eating…

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North of the city… old farm fields abutting isolated old growth. Wild Sarsaparilla. Polypody ferns above the reach of deer. Two-leaved Toothwort? Lycogala, Wolfs Milk. Dwarf Ginseng. Common Brown Cup? Lots of Skunk Cabbage.

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Northern Yellow (male). Black and White. Blackpoll. American Redstart (female). Black-throated Green (male).

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