December 2017
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Whose Woods These Are
I think I know.The winter woodpeckers are out there. Red-bellied Woodpeckers, as above, and Downy Woodpeckers are our regulars. A few Hairy Woodpeckers and Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers keep us honest. And yet… The indispensable Monbiot on not knowing what we’re losing. A must read. Here, if you really want to wallow, are some things I’ve written…
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Raptor Wednesday
Local falcons:American Kestrel. This one was a long avenue block from the Green-Wood linden. The same male, I think, perched atop Sunset Park High School.Another day. Just a few blocks away, atop the tall antenna at 5th/40th. A different male, I think, because of the much greater amount of russet on the breast (not just…
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Hickory
“Though I do not believe that a plant will spring up where no seed has been, I have great faith in a seed. Convince me that you have a seed there, and I am prepared to expect wonders.” ~ Henry David Thoreau Even as we discover invertebrates almost daily, we’re losing them. A lament. There…
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The Tall One
The tallest trees here in the east are usually Tuliptrees (Liriodendron tulipifera), sometimes also called Yellow Populars. The tallest tree in Green-Wood Cemetery is one. According to their new map, “Alive at Green-Wood,” it’s 110 feet tall. This is the “toy camera” setting of my camera, for a change of pace. Samuel Morse’s remains are…
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Water, Water Everywhere
A toponym is a place name, a notion of maps, signs, and our heads but rarely actually written onto the land itself. These names are packed with the histories of the peoples who did the naming. Rivers in particular hold onto ancient names, however filtered by later folk, as this nation so amply demonstrates. George…
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Kentucky Coffeetree, Dusk
Looking sinisterly like something out of Halloween, Gymnocladus dioicus in winter is one of the more unexpected street trees here in NYC. Because the leaf buds aren’t exposed, as in most trees, it can look dead. The heavy fruit pods persist, too, hanging pendulously overhead like strange ornaments. Here’s an interesting discussion about the species…
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Timber!
We caught Ted Levin talking about his book, America’s Snake: The Rise and Fall of the Timber Rattlesnake this week at the Linnaean Society. It’s a damn good book and deserves to be read far and wide. Too many people fear and loath snakes, an irrationality that leads directly to massacre. There are still bloody snake-killing…
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Raptor Wednesday
In winter, my eyes are always looking for the anomalies in trees. There are plastic bags and balloons, unfortunately, as well as the more welcome clumps of leaves from old squirrel dreys, and sagging Baltimore Oriole nests persisting past their usefulness (at least to birds), and big footballs of paper made by wasps. And then,…
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Acer Color
Is that spotting something amiss? (Well, not amiss if you’re a fungus.) * Trump’s corporate puppet on the FCC is trying to end net neutrality, a disaster for democracy. So it’s “break the internet” in protest in advance of Thursday’s vote. Once again, I’d rather join people in the streets, but until then…
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The One, The Many
In fact, you almost always see Mourning Doves (Zenaida macroura) in pairs, year-around.A herd of Rock Doves (Columba livia), not quite as denim-y as they looked that day.
Backyard and Beyond 