December 2010
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PlanNatureNYC
I hope you don’t need convincing that New York City is full of wildness. And a good thing too, for Thoreau summarized our vital need for the wild when he said that “in wildness is the salvation of the world.” His “wildness” is usually mis-remembered as “wilderness,” but no, he wasn’t talking about the far…
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Solstice
Winter begins today, at 6:38 pm, Universal Brooklyn Time. The earth’s axis will be at its farthest tilt from the sun, pushing us in the north away from the warmth. It only lasts a moment, but we mark it as the beginning of the season. ‘Tis the season to be crowy, (you know the tune)…
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Another beach
The Common slipper shell, Crepidula fornicata, a.k.a. boat shell, a marine gastropod, or snail, pilled up at the Jetties on Nantucket. A not particularly rocky area, the island’s surrounding waters present less than enough bases for these snails to attach onto, so they often attach to each other, in chains. The species name comes from…
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Snake!
“There are m$%#er-f@!*ing snakes on this outwash plain?” Why, yes, there are. Contrary to urban myth, St. Patrick did not chase them all from the city back in the day. I found this one at Fort Tilden a couple of mosquito-ridden summers ago. Jamaica Bay and Staten Island have been other places I’ve seen snakes…
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Sea duck washed ashore
A female Common eider, Somateria mollissima, dead on the beach, one of several in a mile or two of walking. These eiders are found close off-shore of Nantucket Island through the winter. The males of this large sea duck species are boldly patterned in black and white. Eiders are the source of eiderdown, soft inner…
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Down the Shore
During last month’s spring tide, we went down to the end of Flatbush Avenue to wander along Brooklyn’s shoreline at Dead Horse Bay. Spring tides, which occur just after full moons, result in unusually high high tides and unusually low low tides. The water level was the lowest I’ve ever seen it out there. (Note…
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Some books for the holidays
Ah, the codex! What a marvelous piece of technology the book is: simple, durable, potentially capable of lasting centuries (presuming it’s not a piece of paperback crap), and free from toxic batteries. Books are all I want for the winter festive giving season — I mean, besides peace, love, and understanding. If you know somebody…
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An early bird
Archaeopteryx lithographica, a cast reproduction of a circa 150 million-year-old fossil of a crow sized proto-bird. This is one of the fossil sculptures on the downtown platform of the 81st Street-Museum of Natural History subway station. Did you know feathers came about before flight? They seem to have been developed for insulation. So Archy probably…
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Housemates
Changing some bulbs — I suppose they should be called tubes now — reveals some fellow apartment dwellers who went towards the light. Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light. — Dylan Thomas
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Remains of the night
Out Madaket way, a row of arbor vitae had been cut back recently because they were crowding the road. Underneath were dozens of bodies. Was it the work of a serial killer? No, some owls had been feeding. Pellets are what these regurgitated masses of prey vomited up by birds are called. A number of…
Backyard and Beyond 