mthew
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Betula Lenticels
Lenticels are pores in the bark of trees (and some plants and some fruits) through which trees exchange gasses. Many lenticels are raised dots, but birches, like this Black (Betula lenta) have scar-like horizontal ones. There’s a danger with all these passages inside though; they can also be the route of disease. B. lenta is…
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Tuliptree
Remember that Tuliptree (Liriodendron tulipifera) we got such close-up views of back in the spring?This is what it looks like now.These “cone-like aggregates of samaras” as Core and Ammons put it in Woody Plants in Winter, persevere. The hypocrisy would gag a snake, but the Republicans are beyond any shame (and certainly any claim to…
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Yowl and Owl
Well, that was the week that was, as succinctly digested here by Think Progress. This shambolic crew reminds me of the amateur ideological warriors who gutted Iraq after Bush II’s military victory and political disaster. Those were the bozos who set up the rise of Daesh/ISL. Meanwhile, back in 2017: Septuagenarian tantrums, White House chaos,…
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A Shaggy Nest
Steve Brodner is a caricaturist. But grotesque caricatures are what this crew is.
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Thoreau Thursday
“When the thermometer is down to 20, the streams of thought tinkle underneath like the rivers under the ice. Thought like the ocean is nearly of one temperature. Ideas, — are they the fishes of thought? Poetry implies the whole truth. Philosophy expresses a particle of it. Would you see your mind, look at the…
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Red-bellied Woodpecker
I’m seeing, and hearing, more Red-bellied Woodpeckers (Melanerpes carolinus) this winter than Downy Woodpeckers. In the Spartan woods of winter, their loud calls can be the only sound other than the wind. I learned recently that this bird, with its ambiguous name (the Red-headed Woodpecker is a whole other species, and the red-belly here is…
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Raptor Wednesday
Heads up! Peregrine on St. Michael’s, check. But what’s that on the left side? That little one was hassling the big falcon, or at least trying to. I think it was an American Kestrel (Falco sparverius). The little one did not stay, but I hustled down two long avenue blocks.From the other side of the…
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Facing the Wind
Have you ever noticed how gulls, like these Ring-billed (Larus delawarensis) hunkered down at Bush Terminal, always face the wind? The better to take off into, of course, the better to fly. The specimen to the rear is a first winter bird, the one in front an adult. * “Thoreau’s quest for the “bottom” of…
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In Winter
The dried fruit capsule of the Horse-Chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum) is distinctively prickly. I just started a class on Native Flora in Winter at the New York Botanical Garden. I hope to share some of what I learn in the coming weeks. Let’s start with: the mints (Lamiaceae) are one of the easiest families to identify in…
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American Robin
Here’s a bird you don’t see too many of in winter up here. Note the binomial Turdus migratorius, the wandering thrush. Most of them do head south for the winter, but some will stick around, usually flocking together as they wander around for berries and the remains of fruits. Off the lawn and out of…
Backyard and Beyond 