mthew
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On Yeast
Apples don’t make true. That is, a seed of a Newtown Pippin—one of my favorite varieties, developed in nearby Queens in colonial days—won’t grow into a tree that produces Newtown Pippins. The resulting tree might produce Newtown Pippins, but it will also produce all sorts of other kinds of apples. The ur-apples way out in…
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RBN
A conifer is a good place to find Red-breasted Nuthatches now. This fall’s big migratory wave of Red-breasted has long since passed through, and now White-breasted are more noticeable, but if you look and listen hard enough at the evergreen clumps, you may be rewarded with these little pointy birds. This was a merged together…
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Under Trees
A pellet expelled by…? Something that eats insects. You can just see the chevron-like markings of a Differential Grasshopper’s hind leg here. These are our biggest grasshoppers. American Kestrels eat them. Another pellet, larger and without large chitin or bone parts. Found under another pine. This time of year, conifers provide cover for raptors. These…
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Raptor Wednesday
In two of these pictures, you have to search for the Red-tailed Hawk. The bird made two attempts to grab this knot-holed Gray Squirrel and did not succeed. Raptor Wednesday, or, the Mammal’s Salvation.
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Sky Tumbling
Oh, to slip the surly bonds of earth! These crows were facing the wind and dancing in place.
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Monday Monday
I read a lot of science fiction in the 1970s and 1980s. But, damn, has the future turned out to be a disappointment. The dystopians weren’t depressives after all, just clear-eyed. Yet look at this House Sparrow! Passer domesticus doesn’t want to see us go. Because then what the hell would they do? Happy Monday,…
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So We’re All Lichens Now?
Getting back to the lichens. For many, they’re just background, splotches on trees and rocks, if they’re even noticed at all. But boy, have they been on a wild ride in human thinking of late. … You probably know lichens are lifeforms that intertwine fungi and alga or cyanobacteria. Yeasts and other bacteria and sometimes…
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Recent Sightings
Oh-oh… these are male Wood Duck feathers found under a big pine. Suggesting somebody had duck…. My mother, who was born in Oklahoma and grew up on a farm there until her parents retreated back to the Illinois they’d started from during the Depression/Dust Bowl, didn’t like eating duck. She couldn’t forget the bits of…
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Gift Wrapping
A Baltimore Oriole nest left over from the summer. High up in a linden. So much ribbon! But then, this is a cemetery, and balloons (boo!) and flowers bouquets (inimical to nature in their own way) come tied. The weavers will find their material. In Prospect Park once, I’ve watched an Oriole pecking at some…
Backyard and Beyond 