Backyard and Beyond

Waited all through October for the sight of a Sympetrum vicinum. Three centimeters of fiery, late season dragonfly.
Finally spotted one last Friday, when the temperature got into early 70s. Spotted at Sylvan Water in Green-Wood, the only one seen.
Not many of these have been observed this fall in NYC, at least according to iNaturalist. I didn’t get out Saturday, but on Sunday I saw a second at Valley Water after coming up empty around Sylvan. Monday I saw one at Sylvan (the same one as Friday?). October’s wet coolness may have been a factor in this poor showing. Better late than never, although there are fewer insects to eat now during the mission to perpetuate the species.
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And there you go, as mask-wearing slackens off, NYC’s Corvid-19 cases climb. Testing positives are up and so are deaths, with 54 in the last week (from yesterday). Over the last 4 weeks, the average was 43 deaths per week.

Nation-wide we’re approaching 10 million cases. The US leads the world in deaths. It didn’t have to be like this. New York’s leadership — Cuomo at the state level and de Blasio for the city level — failed to heed the lessons of China and Italy. Then the Republican parts of the nation, taking their cue from the absolutely criminal Trump administration response (denial, diversion, conspiracy, patent medicine frauds, corrupt politicization of public health), failed to heed New York’s hard won lessons. Having so successfully killed off a quarter million Americans, Trump and his crew of scum are now poisoning the well of democracy by challenging the clear choice of a majority of American voters.