mthew

The Raven on the right is farther away than the American Crows, but still noticeable larger. Bonus Red-winged Blackbirds passing by.

Two consecutive days of Buckeye sightings around Valley Water; might have been the same one? Dismay. Anger. Fear.

Tansy madness continued on November 1st.

Recently, I’ve seen this male American Kestrel with songbird, dragonfly, and mantis prey. Here he has a lizard, picked off the ground along with some grasses. These introduced lizards have become a major source of food for our local Kestrels. *** Tuesday’s disaster will be a disaster for the environment and biodiversity like it will…

There has been a big shake-up in raptor taxonomy. American Goshawk (Astur atricapillus) and Coopers Hawk (Astur cooperii) have been removed from genus Accipiter. These two are closely-related; there has even been evidence that they can hybridize. They are not, however, closely related to the Sharp-shinned Hawk (Accipter striatus), which remains an Accipiter. Convergent evolution…

October 31st: about the only thing in bloom is this Tansy/Tanacentum vulgare. It’s kinda stinky. And a pollinator magnet: These bees, wasps, and flies were attracting Vespula wasps as well. The activity was intense. I came back the next day…

Barring late Common Green Darners, the Autumn Meadowhawk/Sympetrum vicinum is usually the last dragonfly of the season. These photos from October 29th, when they were a lot of them around Sylvan Water and, to a lesser degree, Valley Water in Green-Wood. Two days later, an even warmer day, there was much less activity at both…