May 2022
-
Mammal Monday
*** This Memorial Day, I’m thinking of my mother’s mother’s older brother, who lies buried in the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery in France. He was an artillery wagoneer, killed just a few weeks before Armistice Day in 1918.
-
Beetlemania
Beetle-finding partially funded by you… *** “The gun is our Moloch. We sacrifice children to him daily,” wrote Gary Wills after Sandy Hook in 2012. Still heartbreakingly, tragically true, only more so. Firearms are the leading cause of death of American children. This is a savage republic with more guns than people, a nation held…
-
Hunting Billbug
News: I’ll be a leading a Brooklyn Bird Club insect walk on June 25. Sign up period is 6/19-/6/23, with priority given to BBC members.
-
The Ravens’ Nest
On January 1st, 2015, I saw two Common Ravens canoodling on an abandoned building down at the waterfront. I’d seen these large corvids in the Hudson Highlands, the Scottish Highlands, and out in the American west before this, and once or twice I’d seen them passing over this borough on the western end of Long…
-
Magnolia Monday
Speaking of magnolias, find yourself a Magnolia hypoleuca x virginiana ‘Nimbus‘ (oy!) in bloom and smell. Wowza!
-
Spring Galls
I’ve found at least 86 species of gall-inducers here in Brooklyn, amongst a rather depauperate and heavily invasive biota. I say “at least” because I’ve come across a few that have not yet been described. Check out the ever-expanding gallformers.org database.
Backyard and Beyond 