Backyard and Beyond

Starting out from Brooklyn, an amateur naturalist explores our world.

As John Burroughs said, “The place to observe nature is where you are.”

Signs

For all the Spotted Lanternflies seen in the city this year, I have hardly seen any of their egg masses. Here’s one I did find, in the same place I saw some last year, Bush Terminal Park. These were terminated.
I think these are the eggs of Lymantria dispar, formerly known as Gypsy Moth and now the Skull-capped Tussock.
A small, woven cup nest in an oak. Some suggestion that it may have been a Warbling Vireo nest. Note the incorporation of ribbon: Baltimore Orioles also use these, salvaged from the many bouquets left in the cemetery.
Yew berries (well, cone with aril) in a puddle. Taxus is poisonous to many mammals, including us. Were these regurgitated? I mean, they don’t look like they went through the (raccoon? groundhog? skunk?).
Waste not, want not…
Let’s face it, most excreta is pretty grim. I’ve saved you from a lot of scat pictures over the years. But this little bit is intriguing.
Somebody ate somebody here.

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mthew

2 responses to “Signs”

  1. Charles McAlexander

    Anyone interested in nature likes to see the wealth of beauty which surrounds us all. Only the truly fascinated are willing to deal with the excreta and gory remains to get a deeper understanding of what nature really is and does. It starts innocently enough. You go to the park to look at the pretty birds. Eventually, you come to the conclusion that birding at a sewage treatment plant is just fine and picking apart owl pellets to find the bones and hair of the meal to determine what species was eaten is a real treat. Regurgitated yew fruit is just a gooey part of the process. Bug eggs are pretty tame stuff to the real naturalist.

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  2. SLF Egg Masses | Backyard and Beyond

    […] January 13, 2022 Uncategorized Leave a Comment Last Sunday, I noted that I’d only come across one batch of Spotted Lanternfly eggs so far. That morning […]

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