July 2012
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Brooklyn Sunset
I like to think of these as a herd of giraffe, heading towards the last watering hole of the day across the harbor in New Jersey.Brooklyn Bridge Park, where all these pictures were taken tonight, is scarce on mammals. This rat, a creature of the docks if there ever was one, was larger than it…
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Twelve Spotted
The Twelve-spotted skimmer (Libellula pulchella) is one of the easiest dragonflies to identify. You can even tell from the shadow. This is the female — the males have white patches between the dark spots.
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Short-horned Long-horn
Genus Melissodes, a long-horned bee. The females don’t have the really long horns (actually they are antennae). Note the hairy legs thick with pollen.A solitary bee. There are more than a dozen species in New York. Sunflowers are one of their main food sources.
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Wasps
It is the season of wasps. Seen on a walk through Prospect Park this week:The very elegant Isodontia elegans, one of the grass-carrying wasps, and evidently a species without a common name. The grass they clip and carry is used to line their nests, which are made in pre-existing cavities. They eat pollen themselves and…
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Hymenoptera
Last weekend, I visited the Flatbush Gardener’s garden. The highlight was the mountain mint, alive with pollinators. I mean, jumping with pollinators: several species of bees, wasps, flies, and butterflies going at it. Here are a couple of the highlights: Great Golden Digger Wasp, Sphex ichneumoneus.One of the grass-carrying wasps of genus Isodontia. Cuckoo bee,…
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Yes, we have egrets
The larger Great Egret (Ardea alba) and the smaller Snowy Egret (Egretta thula) are sometimes found side-by side, making the size differential between them easy to see at a distance. For more detailed observation, especially in flight, the Great has a yellow bill and black feet, the Snowy a black bill and yellow feet. Note…
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Tachinid
Most flies get very little respect. Perhaps it’s their hairy rumps? Or maybe it’s that their larvae are parasitic on caterpillars? But Tachinidae flies are also pollinators, and so the plants approve.
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Two Gulls
Ring-Billed Gull (Larus delawarensis), one of the three species of gull found here in the city year around.Laughing gull (Leucophaeus atricilla), a summer visitor to the city. Named for their call, which sounds a bit like crazy-laughter. (The name “Black-headed gull” was taken.) These birds will soon lose their breeding plumage, which includes the black…
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Blue Dasher
The Blue Dasher dragonfly (Pachydiplax longipennis) is common around our ponds and lakes, especially if there’s lots of vegetation in the water. The males have a chalky blue abdomen, with black tip. The females have no blue at all. But they do have tell-tale paired yellow streaks along their abdomen.Dragonflies of this species will often…
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In Maria’s Basement
I’ve mentioned the Maria Mitchell Association on Nantucket in my previous posts without explaining much anything about it. In four decades connection with the island, I’ve been to their observatory, science center, and library many times. A friend of the family wrote the most recent biography. So I naturally assume that everybody knows who Nantucket-born…
Backyard and Beyond 