January 2013
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Natural Histories
I am embarrassed to say I did not even know that the American Museum of Natural History had a research library, and within it an impressive rare book collection. Library Director Tom Baione has put together a sumptuously designed and illustrated selection highlighting some of the historically important books in the collection, matched with short…
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Cold-schmold!
The Monk Parakeets, also known as Quaker Parrots (Myiopsitta monachus) in Green-Wood Cemetery were celebrating the return of (barely) above freezing temperatures yesterday with their usual racket. Once, long ago in Green-Wood, with my bins in hand identifying me as a weirdo, a couple came up and asked if I was there to look at…
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Brooklyn Raven
Winter, especially at the tail-end of a bona fide cold snap like we’ve had most of the week, generally presents few surprises for the nature watcher. But this morning, as I wandered about Green-Wood Cemetery, I watched a Common raven (Corvus corax) and a Red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) contest the airspace overhead. The Red-tailed was…
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Death and Life on the Gowanus
The northern, terminal end of the Gowanus Canal. Where we sat down and wept when we remembered Zion. On Friday, a dolphin ended up in the canal, causing a media frenzy, including, evidently, a helicopter overhead, and the usual circus of social-media-alerted gawkers. (I was blessed to have missed it all.) The animal died in…
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Wunderkammer
The Grolier Club‘s fine exhibition closes in a week. As a wunderkammermensch whose apartment, if not this very blog, is very cabinet-of-curiosity oriented, I must urge you to go see it while you can. Rarely is an exhibition of books, many of them catalogues of private collections, so intriguing. (For a bibliophile, no inducement is…
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Cold Tree
“A beautiful form has as much life at one season as another.” ~ Henry David Thoreau. The distinctive cone shape of the Dawn Redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides) is actually kind of similar to the distinctive cone shape of the Bald Cypress (Taxodium distichum). Both species grace Brooklyn Bridge Park and both appear “bald” this time of…
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Tulipmania
These photos were taken last April 16th in the gardens along the Brooklyn Promenade. I’ve been hoarding them since for a heart-of-winter day, like today. Enjoy.
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Tree Sparrows
American Tree Sparrows (Spizella arborea). They breed in the tundra, and visit us during winter. These were seen at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge. Rufus-caps and sides, white bars on the wing, and a dark central spot distinguish them from the other little brown jobs that are the New World sparrows. (The omnipresent House Sparrow is…
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Downy
A Downy woodpecker (Picoides pubescens) working the bark for delicious invertebrate prey. The stiff tail feathers of a woodpecker help her (this is a female, lacking the red patch on the back of the head, trust me on this) balance on the vertical. Her feet have a zygodactyl pattern, two toes forward, two back, also…
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Sandy’s Effects, Continued
Nothing remains the same; this is the lesson of the earth. And it is particularly the lesson of humans on earth, having reached a stage where we are transforming the planet in unprecedented ways. Here’s the USGS’s 1898 map of Jamaica Bay, crossed by a railroad down to Oceanus and Hammels. (“Oceanus” has disappeared from…
Backyard and Beyond 