mthew

This potter wasp is a recent introduction to the NYC region. (You may remember that I helped in confirming the identification). Is it benign, is it invasive? Probably too soon to tell. I’ve generally seen them gathering nectar, but like other wasps they’re carnivores, too. This one had a caterpillar of some kind.

Yesterday was pretty extraordinary. Between 7:30 and 9:30 a.m., I watched just over a hundred Monarchs drift by our apartment windows, some as close a few feet, others as far as a third of an avenue block away. They’re awfully small at that distance, but still distinctively fluttering. Flight is meandering, but still swift and…

We’re going in reverse order. About a month ago, I posted pictures of Long-tailed Ichneumenon Wasps. The female was ovipositing deep in a hickory tree. Her target: the larvae of this creature, a Pigeon Horntail, which I saw last week. The Pigeon Horntail lays her eggs in old wood. This happens to be another hickory,…

A soft rain of pieces of cucumber magnolia fruit reveals a tree, thickly cloaked in big, thick leaves, busy with Red-eyed Vireos, Catbirds, four different species of thrush. Across the road, the noisier fall of hickory husks point to squirrels at work.