mthew
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Wood Duck
A female Wood Duck (Aix sponsa) through several layers of wild. There were at least seven on the Pools recently. Two of the males. All the males were out of their harlequin breeding feathers, in eclipse plumage, and looked like abashed clowns who had trashed an orphanage after wiping off the greasepaint. It looks like…
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The Nature of the Beast
Last Sunday, I discussed the enemy. Shall we call it capitalism? In his short book Extinction: A Radical History, Ashley Dawson certainly does. “Our economic system is destroying the planetary life support system upon which we depend.” Is this a controversial idea? I don’t think so, but I suppose it will be met with resistance…
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Cocktail Hour
Is this too much John Cheever-John Updike, drunken wasps getting it on? Above are Thread-waisted Wasps (Eremnophila aureonotata) mating on that pollinator-magnet mountain mint (Pycnanthemum). Like many wasps, the adults eat nectar, but feed their larvae flesh. (OK, now we’ve entered Stephen King territory) These provision their young with caterpillars. Blue-winged, a.k.a. Digger Wasp (Scolia…
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Two of Our Smallest Butterflies
Eastern Tailed-Blue (Cupido comyntas). Nice to see the pale blue here, for it usually perches like this:This is a male. Females are browner. I must say, my field guide suggests a much darker blue, but the harsh sunlight here is bleaching everything out. The tiny trailing “tails” can be seen emerging just below the lower…
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Color of Light
Same Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus), same camera/settings, different light.
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Legion of Raccoons
Late afternoon in Green-Wood, a crusty old bandit walking like a old cat. Elsewhere: one of two young and a mother who were just crossing the street then they saw us. They climbed back up the tree they’d come down.The youngsters seemed very curious.
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The Real War
The great Bill McKibben is urging us to declare war on climate change, mobilizing like Americans did in the Second World War against the enemy. But is his enemy the right one? We know how stunningly disruptive climate change is, and how much faster it is all happening, and how quickly the bad news piles up. But…
