mthew
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Land of Vultures
The vultures thicken as you drive south along the New Jersey Turnpike. The Turkey Vultures (Cathartes aura) soar and swirl, rocking their wings. Delaware and Maryland add more Black Vultures (Coragyps atratus) to the aerial ballet. These birds are notable for their shorter tails, silver/white-tipped wings, and a lot more flapping. Road kill seems to…
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Slipperville
We stumbled upon a patch of Pink Lady Slippers (Cypripedium acaule), more than we’ve ever seen in one place by a long, long shot. There must have been close to a hundred visible from the path in a pine woods, especially in the parts recovering from burning. (Fire is so important to so many plants.)…
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And the Damsels
Still in Virginia: Female Fragile Forktail (Ischnura posita) depositing eggs.Furtive Forktail (Ischnura prognata) male, a first for me. Such a challenge to photograph these wee critters!And then to ID them! Immediately above and below, a female Familiar Bluet ((Enallagama civile)). (My best guess: iNaturalist and bug guide.net haven’t come through.) The females of this species…
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Enter The Dragons
A trip a few states south results in a preview of the shape of Odonata to come. Emerging adult dragonflies in a small pond. There were about a dozen. Eastern Pondhawks, I think. Once they wiggle out of the husks of their larval forms, they need to harden off, develop their color, stiffen their wings.…
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Raptor Wednesday
Since a November snow storm blew down the dead, upright branch on this London plane tree across the street, the American Kestrels have rarely been in this tree. That branch, with its knobby top, provided a perfect perch. Much of the kestrel activity has lately taken place on a TV antenna behind this tree. Now…
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Lizard
An Eastern Fence Lizard (Sceloporus undulatus) that liked this log so much we saw it going out and coming back on this path in Virginia.I least I think it’s the same specimen: the lighting, distance, and angle causing the color variation here. These critters perch hunt, meaning they sit and wait for something (“wood-boring beetles,…
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Gavia immer
Common Loons are not uncommon in our waters in winter. But they’re usually way off shore and the wind is blowing you down! And they’re not in their breeding finery like this one, in Gravesend Bay recently. Shouldn’t it be up in the north country loooooooooooning?The knobby head makes me thing of a sock puppet,…
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Laughing into Monday
Good to see the Laughing Gulls back in town. I heard them overhead for a couple of days before seeing any. These were out at Gravesend Bay and Floyd Bennet Field.An immature Ring-billed Gull, a mature Greater Black-backed Gull, and a Brant let you know that Laughing Gulls are on the smaller size. (The GBBG…
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Maps
Hornaday and Gannett’s Map Illustrating the Extermination of the American Bison, 1889. (A digital version here.) They were on the eastern side of the Appalachian chain in the colonial period.One of the sheets of Harold Fisk’s Ancient Courses [of the] Mississippi Meander Belt, 1944. (More detail here.) 6000 years of sinuous riverine movement. That beast’ll…
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Some Birds
Migration is thickening. Here a few recent sightings:Yellow-rumped Warbler.Palm Warbler.Blue-eyed Vireo.
Backyard and Beyond 