mthew

One of the above Red-tails is pictured below in more detail: In the spirit of that Boston TV channel that used to show all the Planet of the Apes movie on Christmas Day, “Christmas With the Apes,” I’ll be regaling you with raptor carols all week. For those of you new to this blog, you…

I’ve have been waiting for this scene for a long time. Almost as long as waiting for an American Kestrel to perch on the raised hand of any of the statutes in Green-Wood. (I’ve seen that, but not long enough to get the camera on it.) This isn’t the only flagpole finial eagle found locally,…

If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you may remember this memorable picture from 2015. The other night, I saw this very picture in a Zoom presentation by the Torrey Botanical Society. It was credited to somebody else! What the what? Not just anybody, but one of Trump’s criminal hacks, who was in…

Two very recently cut trees about ten feet apart. Somebody has been beetle-larvaing through the heartwood of this one.

Examples of Gray Squirrel dreys seen during a walk in Green-Wood. These twig and leaf structures are summer nests. In winter, they get into more substantial places, like tree cavities, the walls of old buildings, etc., which is also where they give birth.

Two blocks out the door, I see three American Crows chasing a young Red-tailed Hawk. A couple more crows join in, but the hawk, probably the youngster frequently seen around Sunset Park this season, flies out of sight. Twenty minutes later inside Green-Wood, I see a pair of RTs circling each other. Twenty-five minutes after…

My dearheart is exploring bryophytes. These are mosses, liverworts, and, most obscurely, hornworts (there are approximately 220 species of hornworts in the world). These tiny plants typically require a healthy dose of magnification to identify. And when you’re looking at a little clump of bryophyte through a microscope, you may see such local community members…

This kind of Auricularia Wood Ear Fungi is a combination of suede-like exterior and a smooth, inky, human skin-like interior. When it’s dead, it’s brittle and shriveled. Like a used, frozen Kleenex tissue.

A balled & burlapped White Oak/Quercus alba sapling, from a nursery in Millstone, New Jersey, was waiting to be planted in Green-Wood recently. I noticed that the tree was hosting some galls: Acraspis pezomachoides, by the look of them. As with the galls on Swamp White Oaks/Q. bicolor planted on the street, this is undoubtedly…