May 2010
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Beach-combing
I could spend the rest of my life beach-combing. You never know what will turn up. Previous discoveries have included an enormous leatherback turtle and a piece of whale vertebrae, although, admittedly, neither of these was in the New York Bight/Hudson River estuary system region. This small fish was. I found it, quite desiccated, on…
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Field Notes: Galls II
Today is Oak Apple Day, celebrating the restoration of Charles II, who famously hid in an oak during the English Civil War. Pity he got away. Anyway, this post is about oaks, oak galls, and/or oak gall wasps, whichever come first, not my vigorous and patriotic anti-royalism. When last we discussed galls, I kept the…
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Back 40 and Beyond Spiders
Look closely and you will see that this jumping spider, found in my backyard, has some prey. And you just have to look closely to see how well this one blends into the sand. Found on a Brooklyn beach. It had turned over on itself in a sandy depression and pulled in all its legs.…
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In the Back 40
A sunflower maggot fly, Strauzia longipennis. Scoping out my sunflowers, which have not yet budded. You can’t really see the red in the eye in my photo, so take a look at this image.
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Geological Ruminations
I wish I knew more about geology. It is not a subject suitable for book learnin’. Still, I’m interested. My samples of NYC regional rock include Manhattan schist, purplish diabase from the Palisades Sill, and Staten Island serpentine. But poor Brooklyn, being terminal moraine and outwash plain, is just a jumble of gravel and clays…
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Black-Crowned Night heron
Scene at the Lake in Prospect Park. Although the black-crowned night heron, Nycticorax nycticorax, will eat just about anything it can swallow, these red eared sliders look a tad too large. (Still, the tableau does give the impression of a vulture waiting for the cowpokes to die.) The most widely spread of the herons, N.…
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Great Egret
Ardea alba in the Valley Water, Green-Wood Cemetery. Once nearly exterminated for their feathers, which plumed ladies’ hats.
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Shhh…
Is there a color more beautiful than robin’s egg blue? This is the nest I posted a picture of last week. It was, after all, a brand new nest. So in the park now, you can see young fledged robins, hopping and flying about; you can see nestling robins, all mouth, gaping for food above…
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Horseshoe Crabs
I wrote about the Atlantic horseshoe crab, Limulus polyphemus last week, before I got a chance to head out to the city shore to look for some this year. So that was theory, this is practice, at Plumb Beach. And practice can be hands-on. If you should happen to see a horseshoe crab wrong-side up…
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Silk Moth
About 11:45 this morning, I noticed some activity at the pupa I found in Prospect Park and brought home to see if it would hatch out. It’s a giant silk moth of some kind, not sure which yet. Above you can see one of the feathery antennae, which has unfurled after being forced out of…
Backyard and Beyond 