mthew

A collection of large hardwood trunks cut down in Green-Wood have been laid out by the Dell Water. The fungi are doing their stuff on them. Crystal Brain/Myxarium nucleatum Diatrype Gilled Polypore/Trametes betulina Other Trametes And, under the bark of Beech/Fagus, are the curvy paths of beetle larvae…

I added 211 new species to my iNaturalist tally this year, even if I can’t be quite sure of species-level ID in every case. Above are two of them: a scale insect that may be Oystershell Scale/Lepidosaphes ulmi and one of their predators, a Chilocorus genus twice-stabbed lady beetle. Ah, but which one? iNat’s robot…

A Merlin landed. I hauled up the camera to my eye and read the Battery Exhausted sign. Quickly loading the spare, I got off a few pictures and then glanced away. When I looked back up: This female American Kestrel was up there. No sign of the Merlin. This Kestrel really does rule around the…

In the cones of Baldcypress/Taxodium distichum this time of year, you can find an orange sap.

I think it’s awfully sporting of the local Common Ravens to announce themselves as they fly. by. But then, we go way back (well, at least until 2015).

Taxodium leaves afloat.

Not counting the various bees, flies, dragonflies, and butterflies I already blogged about last month, here are some of the insects I noted in Brooklyn. Above: November 5th: Pimpla pedalis. November 9th: Chinese Mantis/Tenodera sinensis November 9th: leafhopper November 11th: Tephritis pura November 14th: Neogerris hesione November 16th: Lasioglossum November 17th: False Milkweed Bug/Lygaeus turcicus…

You will be assimilated… this Borg of a Dolichovespula aerial yellowjacket nest has absorbed one of the leaves of the magnolia it was built in. Here’s a nest way up a White Oak. Another magnolia-based nest, this one not too far up and rather small. One each in Horsechestnuts that weren’t too far apart. These…

A windy day. This female American Kestrel was flying between funeral monuments and occasionally having difficulty with the wind. What’s to eat? Dragonflies? Didn’t see a one. Lizards? Not out in the open, although I did hear some suggestive rustling. Songbirds? Subdued in the wind. You just have to work harder this time of year.…