mthew
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Ouroboros
Originally posted on Backyard and Beyond: Every twenty years or so, my dander gets up and I write a letter to the New York Times. In the mid-1980s, I did it to spank Edward Teller, who poo-pooed the concept of nuclear winter in an Op-Ed, with a reminder of the global climate effects of “Eighteen…
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Skunk Heaven
Hear ye, hear ye! The Skunk Cabbage is up at the Native Flora Garden at Ye Brooklyn Wedding Venue! Symplocarpus foetidus favors wetlands, as this plant demonstrates from mid-gurgle of the stream.Of course, this earliest of spring plants was up already down south weeks ago, but Brooklyn is where I am, so I celebrate it’s…
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Turtle Underground
The great turtle or tortoise holding up the world is an ancient story from China and India — and the New World, whose original inhabitants came from Asia. Less well known is the race of giant tortoises who hold up New York City. Your engineer, the very definition of quotidian, will insist on schist —…
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Scaup
The great rafts of scaup that gather in Dead Horse and Gravesend Bays during the winter will soon be heading to breeding areas in the north. The males are three-toned. The females are brownish with a touch of white on the cheek. I find separating the Greater (Aythya marilla) and Lesser (Aythya affinis) difficult.
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Timberdoodles!
This is American Woodcock (Scolopax minor) country. Actually, this time of year, practically anywhere is American Woodcock country: backyards, bars, porches, Park Avenue medians, DUMBO parking garages. Yes, I’ve heard cases of them appearing in all these places. I’ve written a poem in which I refer to them bombarding us during the migration seasons; I’d link to…
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And by the way…
It’s spring! A Pine Warbler (Setophaga pinus) and Eastern Phoebe (Sayornis phoebe) herald the season in Central Park today.
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What the wha…?
A building at Floyd Bennett Field has this Snowy Owl stuffed animal in the window. I mean, I think it’s a stuffed animal.
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The Catskills ~ Luna Moths
Originally posted on Backyard and Beyond: Checking out of our fog-bound Catskills hotel, we were greeted with a luna moth on the veranda. One of the giant silk moths, Actias luna is large, startling, and spectacular. (See the comments for the status of these show-stoppers here in the city.) Wingspan ranges from 3-4″ in length.…
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Wash Your Rocks
One of the earliest disillusionments is the transformation of the beautiful seashell or river rock into something rather dull once it has dried out. Whence the magic of the beach-combing discovery, the footloose, and probably bare-footed, sojourn along the edges of the ocean/pond/lake/stream/river, where the gleaming thing captured our eye? I understand that shell collectors…
Backyard and Beyond 