mthew
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Shagbark Hickory
Carya ovata produces thick-fleshed fruit, which dries out to hard four-quarter shell protecting the inner nutshell. Most of them fall to the ground before splitting, or being split/gnawed/chewed by our fellow mammals, but this one was still up on a twig.
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Painted Bunting
A rare, resplendent adult male Painted Bunting (Passerina ciris) has been in Prospect Park for two weeks now, attracting an enormous amount of media attention and hordes of viewers. Note this big seed-cracking bunting bill. The bird has stuck to the area around and atop the new ice-skating complex, which has a green roof. The…
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Armchair Naturalist at Sunrise
A Grey Squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) scouting out House Sparrow (Passer domesticus) cribs as a scrum of sparrows protest. Bit late in the year for eggs or young in these hideaways, innit?
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Black-headed Gull
The other exotic bird in Prospect Park lately is a Black-headed Gull (Chroicocephalus ridibundus), which is common in Europe but scanter on this side of the Atlantic. I first saw them in Scotland in 2006. Over here, the coast of Canada is where you might normally expect to see one during the winter. The black…
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Lichenworld II
More marvelous lichens from Nantucket.And amidst them, a tiny mushroom.
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Lichenworld I
Lichens are extremely sensitive to air pollution, so we don’t have all that many here in the city. We’re missing out on an amazing little universe as a result, one we’ve gotten used to not seeing. This is a perfect example of the way environmental destruction isn’t noticed: as species decline and disappear, we become…
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Mossery
Like miniature tropical wildernesses, clumps of moss on the forest floor glow with a green that is only also seen in conifers by late November.What are mosses? I had to look this up: they are non-vascular flowerless plants. In the picture above, the reddish stalk-like structures are sporophytes, the out-of-focus little clumps at the top…
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When Drones Attack
At first it seems as if the raptor-versus-drone videos are a win for the birds. Rah, rah, nature over technology and all that. I’ve seen about half a dozen now, though, and don’t think it’s good for them at all. Which is why I won’t link to any here: publicity begets copycats, drone-heads eager for…
Backyard and Beyond 