mthew
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Weekend Dragonflies
Got a grip. The handsome Painted Skimmer (Libellula semifasciata), with his conspicuous orange wing pattern. Note the appendages at the tail-end of the abdomen: this is a male. He uses these to grasp females right behind the eyes (damselflies grasp by the neck). More on the wild kingdom of dragonfly sex can be found here,…
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Instar Light, Instar Bright
According to the good bug people at Bugguide.net, this is an instar caterpillar of the Grey Hairstreak (Strymon melinus). Here’s the adult, also seen at BBP. The caterpillar was munching away on some Desmodium trifoliatum. There is some variability in the coloring of these caterpillars; this one was pretty much the color of the flowers,…
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British Birds 3
A fledgling Wren (Troglodytes troglodytes). Wrens are the most common species of bird in the UK. I heard them everyday, but saw them much less frequently. Sly.Grey Wagtail (Motacilla cinera), seen with some frequency along and on the rocks of fast moving streams and rivers.White/Pied Wagtail (Motacilla alba). Wagtails are named because of their very…
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Coppicing
Two kinds of woodlands seen along the Dartmoor Way: A conifer plantation, planted mid-last century, looking rather majestic but also, well, rather — although hardly all — sterile. Houndtor Woods, a Woodlands Trust area near Manaton.Trees of many trunks in a hardwood forest, looking deeply lush with its attendant mosses and other understory plants. A…
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British Birds 2
A cornucopia of corvids!Magpie (Pica pica), seen throughout my walk, usually flying away from a field. This one was in London, and was the first bird I photographed on this trip. There was even one in the backyard of my hotel in London, on Norfolk Square, heard more often than seen. A magnificent animal, absurdly…
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British Birds 1
Male Tufted Duck (Aythya fuligula) at the London Wetland Centre.A very fresh Moorhen chick (Gallinula chloropus) in the garden of the Natural History Museum. Chick and a juvenile. The kids grow up fast.Great Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopos major) outside my window in Buckfastleigh.Wood pigeon (Columba palumbus) nesting at the Totnes railroad station.Male Chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs) at…
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PSA: Know Your Starlings
And your Grackles. This is currently on exhibit at Brooklyn Bridge Park’s Photo Wall. These not-grackles are in fact European Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris). Mortimer! For Common Grackle (Quiscalus quiscula), see here. For Boat-tailed Grackle (Q.major), hang out at Jamaica Bay and you might get lucky. For Great-tailed Grackle (Q. mexicanus), try the Southwest US and…
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London Wetland Centre
Polar explorer Robert Falcon Scott wrote to his wife about their only child — who he of course did not get to see grow up — “make the boy interested in natural history if you can; it is better than games.” This is a statue of that child grown up, Peter Markham Scott (1909-1989), naturalist,…
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A grand trip
I’ve returned from England, where I walked the 90 or so miles of the Dartmoor Way, with a few short and long cuts in between, and so many ups and downs, my calves are now like iron and my heart is ten years younger. By the way, the butts of bumblebees there are a rainbow…
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Several Planes at Once
I think this may be one of the largest trees I’ve seen outside of the Coast Redwoods. Click on this image to make it larger, and note the fits-four-adults bench at the base of the bole, just past the lamp post. It’s a London Plane (Platanus × acerifolia), gifted by the Vassar College Class of…
Backyard and Beyond 