Out at Jamaica Bay

“You must take the A train” — if you want to see the prickly pear cactus in bloom.
Personally, I’d drop everything to go see it. It’s the only cactus in the region, Opuntia humifusa, and it loves the sandy Mid-Atlantic Plain, the outer lands, (of which portions of Brooklyn and Queens are included).
Bumble bees in the beach roses, Rosa rugosa. Watch them in there — they really do the hustle.

Forty species of birds, many blue damselflies, and lots of other in-your-face (ears, etc.) bugs. Two osprey nests were busy with youngsters. The tree swallows continue to be everywhere. The yellow-crowned and black-crowned herons were all over. Best view of the day was a very close yellow-billed cuckoo.
Butterfly weed, orange milkweed, chigger flower, and pleurisy root are some of the common names for this member of the milkweed family, Asclepias tuberosa.