mthew

I was eating a sandwich standing up by the kitchen window when suddenly a young Bald Eagle flew into my view followed by a crow. They were closer than the building across the street, right over 6th Avenue and at my 4th floor eye-level! Hurrying to clean my hand and grab my camera, I got…

Like cotton-candy splashed with raspberry juice, Woolly Catkin Gall Wasp/Callirhytis quercusoperator bunches up the flowers of a Northern Red Oak. Meanwhile, on a Scarlet Oak, it’s mostly white. These are created by tiny wasps that take control of the plant to induce this unique growth on the catkins. The wasp larvae grow up inside, eating…

North of the city… old farm fields abutting isolated old growth. Wild Sarsaparilla. Polypody ferns above the reach of deer. Two-leaved Toothwort? Lycogala, Wolfs Milk. Dwarf Ginseng. Common Brown Cup? Lots of Skunk Cabbage.

Northern Yellow (male). Black and White. Blackpoll. American Redstart (female). Black-throated Green (male).

Red-tailed Hawk nest… seems to be listing on the port side. Two male Kestrels tangling over territory. After they had separated. One of two Osprey flying over Sylvan Water recently. From across the East River, a view of parent in the Peregrine nest box at 55 Water Street. One youngster is in there as well,…

Half dozen Barn Swallows on my Sunday BBC walk in a very chilly Green-Wood.