Fieldnotes
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Humming
Only one hummingbird species is regularly seen here on the East Coast, out of some nineteen species found in North America north of Mexico. This is the Ruby-throated (Archilochus colubris). Only the male has the nominal incandescent throat, but the lighting often makes it look dark.Hummingbirds also eat mosquitos, spiders, bees, aphids, gnats, fruit flies,…
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Cicada Days
The dog days of summer are named after Sirius, the Dog Star. This season also gives its name to the Dog Day cicadas. Is there a better representation of August than the sound of these annual cicadas? The Tibicen genus nymphs spend a few years underground sucking on tree roots. There are broods every year. They are…
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Tyrannus tyrannus juniors
Yesterday I noticed a large corvid being chased by something small. I couldn’t get on either of them quick enough tell who was who, but afterwards I noticed an Eastern Kingbird perched on one of the London planes lining the northern edge of Sunset Park. Could this have been the pursuer? They don’t call them…
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Torrey 150
This year marks the 150th anniversary of the Torrey Botanical Society, the oldest botanical organization in America. Namesake John Torrey was a Columbia College physician, chemist, and botanist. His 1819 Catalogue of Plants Growing Spontaneously Within Thirty Miles of the City of New York and his A Flora of New York State (1843), among other…
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Raptor Wednesday
Young Red-tailed Hawks were being very noisy among the mature trees. When this one perched on the edge of the woods, the Robins, Catbirds, Blue Jays, Squirrels, Chipmunks, and all let up a hollering of their own.Soon after, three hawks were seen circling way up in the sky.
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Ode to the Odonates
An immature female Eastern Forktail (Ischnura verticalis). Several members of of the Ischunura genus have immature females with orange on them, but telltale here: segments 1-3 are mostly orange, and that there’s no orange on segment 9. She will lose this color as she ages: the standard female form is an olive green, although there’s…
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Monday Again?
Spotted Sandpiper (Actitis macularius). Shorebirds are already on the move, heading south from their breeding grounds. I saw at least two of these in Green-Wood yesterday. Like the Solitary Sandpiper (Tringa solitaria), this species is often seen away from the ocean shore, along freshwater shores. In its non-breeding plumage, as now, the Spotted lacks the…
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Hemaris thysbe
Hummingbird Clearwing Moth.I love watching these creatures at work. They are almost constantly in motion, never landing on flowers like bees and butterflies, and moving quickly between different flowers. I’m surprised these phone pictures came out so well. Although the moth is throwing its own shadow over its legs, there are bits where you can…
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Swamp Loosestrife
Decodon verticillatus is also called water-willow and whorled loosestrife. The flowers are spectacular, but you sure have to get close to them.These leaves certainly look rather “willowy,” but the species isn’t related to Salix. It is related to Purple Loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria), the dreadful invasive, but D. verticillatus is a native from Maine to Louisiana.…
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Great Golden Digger
Busy as a wasp. A Great Golden Digger Wasp (Sphex ichneumoneus).She builds a nearly vertical burrow with cells off of a central tunnel, each stockpiled with paralyzed grasshoppers and katydids for her young.
Backyard and Beyond 