August 2012
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Prospect Park
Fall migration has begun, and the park is filling again with birds on their way south. I had a morning full of American Redstarts around Lookout Hill. And there was of course much else to see. And hear. A few of them: Long shot across the Upper Pool. Several Wood ducks and a couple of…
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We’ve Got Crabs
The triangle of saltmarsh ot the southern end of Pier One at Brooklyn Bridge Park is an experiment. It’s cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora), which thrives even though it’s flooded by salt water at high tides. In flower now, it will send many seeds off on the currents, searching for mudflats. Key to its success, though, is…
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Habitat
Brooklyn Bridge Park’s horticulturalist Rebecca McMackin told me recently that she consciously works to create habitat. The proof is in the animals: Spot-winged glider (Pantala hymenaea), a new species for me. A reader of this blog, in private conversation, noted how the carrion beetle thing yesterday was a little queasy, but I personally find these…
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Burying Beetles
Burying beetles, also called sexton beetles, after the church employee traditionally in charge of the congregation’s corpses, need carrion. They eat dead mammals and birds, as well as the fly larvae that feed off carrion, but most importantly they bury it with their own eggs, giving their young something to eat. Pictured above are two…
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Form
The forms of nature are virtually infinite. These buds will soon resolve themselves into the saucer-sized flowers of Rose Mallow (Hibiscus moscheutos).And inside one of the blossoms already opened.
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Empire of the Beetle
“I’m here to protect the trees from the beetle,” said the academic. The logger laughed and said that was bullshit. “The trees and the beetles have been in cahoots for millions of years.”In Empire of the Beetle, Andrew Nikiforuk tells the tale of the destruction caused by the disruption of that cahoot-ness, as tiny beetles,…
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No mud, no lotus
“Maggie Belle Slocum” lotus at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. The title from Thich Nhat Hanh; the inspiration a postcard from the Deer Park Zen Monastery, given to me by Amy.
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No pipeline in Jamaica Bay
There is a petition against the plan to put a natural gas pipeline through Gateway National Recreation Area, with a large metering facility at Floyd Bennett Field. These kinds of things do not belong in a place that was set up, to quote the original Congressional legislation, “to preserve and protect for the use and…
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Geothermal Well
I’d like one of these. At the Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s new Visitor Center, “Twenty-eight geothermal wells will heat and cool the building; they will be supplemented by the utility grid only as needed. The building is also nestled into the surrounding hillside, which helps provide insulation.”
Backyard and Beyond 