mthew

Feb 1st February 12th. March 5th. March 12th. (It takes about 30 days for incubation, so there could be wee tinies in there today.)

I’ll be leading a Snail Safari on Earth Day, April 22nd, in conjunction with artist David Colosi’s Snaileidolia exhibition at Open Source. The exhibition is April 15-May 26, 2023. The snails pictured above are Cepaea nemoralis, the Brown-lipped or Grove Snail. At 3/4s of an inch across, this is the biggest land snail you’ll find…

Pine Warbler/Setophaga pinus hunting insects in a Red Maple/Acer rubrum. The bird was also eating seeds from the bird feeders in the Dell.

Recently, I glanced up at a sidewalk Common Hackberry/Celtis occidentalis I pass almost everyday. I noticed this for the first time. Turned out there were a few others. These are the galls created by Pachypsylla venusta, the Hackberry Petiole Gall Psyllid. This is only the second time I’ve seen this species here in Brooklyn. There…

March 2nd. March 3rd. March 4th March 9th. March 12th. March 19th: circling with another adult as a third Red-tail checks out the romance situation. Not seen by myself, but the group I was with described the bird to a T (or a V): March 26. Going through my picture files I see I have…

My first wild* bee of the season. This is an Unequal Cellophane Bee/Colletes inaequalis. The species is one of the earliest to emerge out of the ground of winter. Reports had them showing up further out on Long Island and in New Jersey in February, but this sighting was March 21. A fast mover, rarely…

Whilst slurping up nectar from Virginia Spring Beauty flowers, this fly gets some pollen stuck to its hairs. Still the same flower, but should the fly venture into another VSB flower, some of that pollen may contact the stigma…but will it?

Lots of big American Bullfrog tadpoles rising out of the murk for a gulp of oxygen. Minnows, too. And sculling across the surface, a swift Hesperocorixa water boatman. This is either the 1,248th animals species I’ve documented in NYC for iNaturalist or the 1,481st, depending on how you ask iNaturalist to count.

Second sighting this year of an Eastern Phoebe. In past years, there were sometimes EP lingerers all through winter in Green-Wood. This winter, I hadn’t noticed a one until March 12. The one pictured here was seen March 17.