November 2010
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Strange Fish
Back in March, I found a perfectly preserved northern pipefish on the coast of Brooklyn. When I found it, I didn’t know what it was, but I thought it looked like a straightened seahorse. It turns out that seahorses and pipefish are related, in the Syngnathidae family along with the seadragons. I’ve never seen a…
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Architecture
Now that most of the leaves have fallen, it’s a good time to start looking for bald-faced hornet nests. These two samples are from Prospect Park. These nests are abandoned each year, so they are harmless in winter. Wasp queens are the only ones who survive the winter, and they do it underground, or deep…
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Walking Tour
“To a person uninstructed in natural history, his country or sea-side stroll is a walk through a gallery filled with fine art works, nine tenths of which have their faces turned to the wall. Teach him something of natural history, and you place in his hands a catalogue of those which are worth turning around.”…
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Audubon’s Mammals
While behind the locked doors of the American Museum of Natural History last week, I saw a hidden exhibition of John James Audubon’s mammals. It was an unexpected treat, but too brief. (The exhibit was open to the public between 2007-09 in the renovated Audubon Gallery, but I missed it then.) Nowhere near as famous…
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Behind the scenes at AMNH
I will most likely never see the great majority of the planet’s 10,000 plus bird species, but I’m fine with that, since I’m not a competitive birder. I am, however, not happy about missing those species native to the East Coast that were exterminated long before I showed up: heath hen, Carolina parakeet, passenger pigeon.…
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Trio of Bird Projects
If you don’t hear crows in Brooklyn almost every day, you haven’t been listening carefully enough. This project, Birds of Brooklyn wants you to listen closely, too. Look up at Myrtle & St. Edwards and Myrtle & Carleton for Myrtle Avenue Bird Town. Compared to the butt-ugly highrises recently erected on Myrtle, these bird houses…
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Through the window
That hearty urban mammal, the gray squirrel, Sciurus carolinensis, makes its way across the Back 40 Bypass between the abandoned house to the south and the half-abandoned house to the north. (It’s a bit of a slum corner, I’m afraid.) The squirrels have a condo in the upper stories of the half-abandoned house to the…
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An Ancient Enemy
Last week, I killed a mosquito with gorgeous emerald green eyes in my girlfriend’s apartment. It was 3:30 in the morning, and for perhaps obvious reasons I did not think to photograph the remains. I did, however, think it would be the last of the pestilent blood-suckers for the year. But alas, no; last night,…
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In Green-Wood
I have a confession to make: I’ve been cheating on Prospect Park. Yes, yes, I know, I know — how could I? Olmsted & Vaux & Stranahan’s great park, which beats the knickers off Central, is so lovely and sweet, but I guess Man isn’t made to be park-monogamous. It’s not like I feel good…
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All Creatures Great and Small
Mostly small. And mostly slimy (cue Monty Python). More tidying up in the Back 40 in preparation for winter. My backyard is a Brutalist expanse of poured concrete, so I use numerous pots for planters. All were salvaged from the street. There’s also a found-on-the-sidewalk wooden box, festively decorated with painted balloons. While moving this…
Backyard and Beyond 