mthew
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Swamp
What an unfortunate metaphor “draining the swamp” is. We need all the swamp we can get. Here’s a Swamp Sparrow (Melospiza georgiana). This species has longer legs than its cousins (the Song Sparrow is in the same genus), the better for wading. But this particular bird was tucked away in a bit of rather dry…
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Thoreau Thursday
The purple, duck-billed buds of Liriodendron tulipifera. These are just over 2cm long and were taken from some recent windfall branches. Thoreau seems to have become acquainted with “tulip trees” on Staten Island, where he lived from May-December of 1843, having gone there to tutor Ralph Waldo Emerson’s brother’s children. I read in one source…
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Raptor Wednesday
A winter trip to Croton Point Park up in Westchester Co. has become a regular thing for Backyard & Beyond. Last week I took a group from Brooklyn Brainery up to see the Bald Eagles. It was the annual Teatown Hudson River EagleFest: there were volunteers with scopes stationed at the boat landing south of the…
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Cling On
It was a very chilly day. FYI: There was such a demand for my Brooklyn Brainery Where the Wild Things Are NYC class that we’re doing it again on February 28th at 6:30.
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Barking Mad Monday
The distinctive bark of Beech (Fagus), its typical smoothness broken up by age.Hackberry (Celtis). On the young trees especially, these nobby, layered, butte-like protuberances are characteristic. The red hairs of a Poison Ivy (Toxicodendron radicans) vine find them a good place to anchor.This is a mature Carolina Silverbell (Halesia carolina).And this strange stuff is Fetid…
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Earth in Mind
David W. Orr’s Earth in Mind: On Education, Environment & the Human Prospect has been turning my mind over and fertilizing it with good compost. “My point is simply that education is no guarantee of decency, prudence, or wisdom. More of the same kind of education will only compound our problems. This is not an…
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Wooly Bear
Our old friend the Banded Wooly Bear caterpillar, bearishly larval stage of the Isabella Tiger Moth, Pyrrharctia isabella. This was found behind a large piece of bark, which was put back. Have you heard the one about judging winter’s length/severity by the amount of black and/or orange on the animal? Turns out that the colors…
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Signs
Another Saw-whet pellet from our owl experience last weekend.In fact, once I started looking down, there was evidence that this owl and/or others having been hanging around a while. Such pellets can be dissected to discover which little mammals the little owls of the Bronx eat. More evidence. While pines are often gooey with resin,…
Backyard and Beyond 