Fieldnotes
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Savannah Toes
The touch of yellow between eye and bill here is telling, but did you know that Savannah Sparrows (Passerculus sandwichensis) are also notable for their long toes? Those nails look a little long, too. What do you think?
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Rambur’s Forktail
I’ve spotted another Brooklyn damselfly species, bringing my NYC list up to nine species. This is a male Rambur’s Forktail (Ischnura ramburii). Approximately 1.25″ long. He was flitting about the edge of Green-Wood’s Sylvan Water among a fair number of Familiar Bluets.This is a pair of Familiars (Enallagma civile) in the mating grip: the male…
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Red-breasted Nuthatches
A good number of Red-breasted Nuthatches (Sitta canadensis) have been seen in the region this migration, an irregular occurrence for this tiny species of song bird. I heard some a few weeks ago at Green-Wood, but I hadn’t seen any in the feather until Sunday at Jamaica Bay. Two of them were wheedling pine nuts…
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Ocola Skipper
Note the long forewings here, which certainly makes it stick out of the common storm of skippers. This is an Ocola Skipper (Panoquina ocola), a butterfly of the southeast (and down to Paraguay) that occasionally gets as far north as Canada. It’s a “regular stray” up here according to the Kaufman guide. This is a…
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Green Heron
The squad of geese attracted my attention. But then the young Green Heron (Butorides virescens) stood out amidst all that gooseflesh.These juvenile herons are heavily streaked in the neck. The “green” of the name isn’t so helpful (ditto “Green-backed,” the old common name for them). They have nested in Brooklyn in recent years. I haven’t heard or…
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Perception
This is a detail of a volcanic rock I picked up in Iceland a few years ago. Do you see what I see? The chocolate brown portions look like they are above the darker blue-black portions. They look like hills. But they’re actually the subsurface part of the rock, the pits. Twice now I’ve experienced…
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View From The Moraine
A green lacewing (Chrysopidae) paused briefly on the window recently.
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Lepidoptera Lowdown
A veritable blizzard of Lepidoptera over a patch of ground-loving Buddleja last week. Lots of skippers skipping. This is a male Sachem (Atalopedes campestris), I think. Several sulphurs ever so briefly alighting. This is purported to be a Clouded Sulphur (Colias philodice)… probably: Orange and Clouded can mix it up genetically, so these are hard to…
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Gnatty
The other evening I walked from Sunset Park to Grand Army Plaza, the last half mile through Prospect Park’s Long Meadow, which was surprisingly empty of the usual clutter of bipeds and canines. As I entered the park at 9th Street, past Layette and groom, I saw the horse-chestnuts and buckeyes anticipating conker-fall, and a…
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For Want of a Tail
A female Common Yellowthroat warbler (Geothlypis trichas) absent all her tail feathers. A small bird made even smaller. She may have lost them all at molt, although that’s usually a progression not a sudden loss. Or maybe a cat got her? Whatever the case, she was doing fantastic work grabbing larvae and adult bugs, even…
Backyard and Beyond 