mthew

I’ve been waking up around sunrise to the sound of crows in the neighborhood. This red-mouthed fledgling was in this London Plane for at least three hours one recent weekend morning. Sounded like Fish Crow, but then don’t they all when they’re young?

It’s lean times for raptor-viewing.

You can’t actually tell from this photo, but some two dozen Chimney Swifts swooped overhead as numerous dragonflies patrolled just above the grasses. The hunting must have been good here, across the street from the bus terminal and train yard. Nearby, under more canopy, vast numbers of non-biting midges scurried from my feet. It was…

American Amberwing and his shadow. Two of my best photos of a will-not-stop baskettail. In three widely different locations, over several years, I’ve yet to see one perch, nor succeeded in identifying one to species. Who can get enough of the wonderfully named Orange Bluet? Immature Fragile Forktail, I think. Eastern Pondhawk female. Blue Dasher…

These are pretty unsatisfying pictures, but zoomy zounds! they’re hard to capture. (5th Ave. and 25th St. here in Brooklyn.)

Some nymph katydids. Some Microcentrum katydid eggs.

There are usually a few Common Grackle around the Sylvan Water in Green-Wood during the breeding season. At least one of the large pines nearby is a likely nesting place. And here’s a fledgling at the edge of the Water on June 2nd. Another (?) member of the Class of ’23, seen last week a…

A few Common Snappers have been released into this pond, with permission, from an animal rescue organization. And although wildlife shouldn’t be fed, they are, and hence tend to come up begging.

Lots of arm-waving from this male Thin-spined Jumping Spider/Tutelina elegans. This may be the female of the species. One of the running crab spiders, I think. Another look at the Variegated Ground Spider/Sergiolus capulatus.