October 2015
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Fort Tilden Autumn
Note: We actually did see porpoises or dolphins swimming parallel to the beach in the strong surf.
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Instar
Instars are the stages between successive molts of some arthropod species. The word is from the Latin and means likeness or form. Because arthropods are covered in a hard shell, the exoskeleton, they must shed this to grow larger. Ecdysis is the scientific term for this shedding. That cigar-chomping wag H.L. Mencken coined the term…
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Viburnum Bright
Viburnum trilobum or opulus. Either way, cranberry!
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No to TNR
A bill before New York Governor Andrew Cuomo proposes to fund TNR programs around the state. These are efforts to Trap, Neuter and vaccinate, and then Release feral cats back in the places they were found. Feral cats are our number one invasive species. They kill enormous numbers of birds and mammals every year and…
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Master Aster
The wind was making it impossible to focus this perfectly. So it’s a little more abstract, but just as lovely. One of the numerous Asters that make the autumn so exciting to human and pollinator.Another, held firm.These last two pictures may be Smooth Aster. A complicated family.
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Green-Wood Was So Very Birdy
The cold front that came through Saturday night practically snowed birds. There were so many in Green-Wood yesterday I thought it was the height of spring migration. There were several types of sparrows and warblers, both kinglets, thrushes, lots of Flickers, a couple of Red-winged Blackbirds, one or two Brown Creepers, one or more Woodcock,…
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Lordly Peregrine, Part II, or What the Hey?
Saturday morning, I noticed something on top of St. Michael’s cross. Was it a dead bird, prey of the Peregrine perching there the night before? A slightly closer view from the flank of Sunset Park itself, with no intervening window. (Getting closer to the actual building means descending the hill and losing the overview as…
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Frost
It’s supposed to be freezing in areas north of the city tonight. Our local forecast calls for 36° tomorrow morning. Welcome fall! Here’s a maple to keep you warm.
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Lordly Peregrine
Since moving to Sunset Park in late August, I’ve kept an eye out for birds on the top of the local landmark, St. Michael’s RC Church on 4th Avenue at 42nd. The cross on the steeple seems like a perfect perch for raptors, making them the lord of all they survey. For until this century,…
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Hopper, Cricket
Good sand-colored camouflage here.Here, not so much, but then crickets are usually tucked away someplace, heard much more often than seen. Grasshoppers and crickets (and katydids, etc.) are in the order Orthoptera, the “straight-winged.”
Backyard and Beyond 