mthew

Female. First representative of Enallagma geminatum I’ve seen in Brooklyn. (And the only one only for Kings Co. on iNat.) Hanging out at the crest of the hill southwest of Sylvan Water in Green-Wood. Look at every bird, I always say, you never know what you’ll end up seeing, and now I must expand this…

Yellow-legged Mud-dauber Wasp/Sceliphron caementarium working on a second mud tube structure next to an already completed one. Once this tube is done, she will stuff it with paralyzed spiders and lay an egg in there. Note that the mud ball she’s collected somewhere nearby is larger than her head. Sometimes they clump more mud around…

Spinola’s Mason Wasp/Ancistrocerus spinolae Walden’s Potter Wasp/Ancistrocerus waldenii drinking from the pool covering. Bramble Mason Wasp/Ancistrocerus adiabatus exploring a not-deep-enough recessed screw hole. Parancistrocerus genus Ammophila Therion circumflexum (?) Dolichomitus irritator, maybe. All the above seen in Staatsburg, NY. This just in: my first sighting of Sceliphron curvatum, the Asian Mud-dauber, was on Sunday in…

We certainly were spoiled having American Kestrels up close and personal all those years when a pair nested on the corner and perched in a tree right across the street. Now the nearest nest I know about is a long-shot for the camera. On Monday, two males and two females were seen around the nest.…

Phanogomphus exilis–if that’s what this is; there are a lot of clubtails.

Sulphur-winged Grasshoppers/Arphia sulphure. A little burst of yellow when they fly. Not to mention the sound. Here’s one the carpenter ants are scavenging. In addition, there were a few early instars of other grasshoppers hopping about:

On May 8th, I spotted a female Baltimore Oriole beginning a nest in a London Plane. I returned a week or so after that first sighting, but could see nothing. But then this past Monday, June 5, the wind was kicking up and I spotted what looks like a full nest. A male singing atop…

Dogwood Twig Borer Bumble Flower Goldenrod Leafminer Larinus something False Darkling Beetle family member Strangalepta Flower Longhorn Beetle Peach Root Weevil (Tortoise beetle on window, from the inside, because by the time I got outside it was gone…) Stropenron hamata Gambrinus Flat-headed Apple Tree Borer… …one of the Jewel Beetle family. Don’t we all wish…

I saw more than two dozen beetle species last week in a yard and along a nearby street. Plum Curculo above…you might have to take a seat here, this is going to continue into tomorrow… Oak Leafrolling Weevil One of the numerous Agrilus species Kuschelina vians Rove beetle Six Spotted Tiger Wrinkled Soldier Agrilus cyanescens…