Fieldnotes
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Tiger Bee Fly
Xenox tiginus is a large fly with a distinctive black and clear wing patterning. At least in our eastern region, where there is just one of these Xenox genus flies; there are a few more out west. These lay their eggs at the entrances of Carpenter Bee nests so that their larvae can parasitize the bee’s larvae.…
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SI Surprise
This time of year, one visits Mt. Loretto Unique Area, a NYS DEC property on Staten Island, for the rich plethora of summer plants and insects, with some good birds thrown into the mix. But as soon as we got out of the car the other day, we noticed two big dark birds in the…
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Parasites
Well, if I don’t recognize it, how will the other birds? Spotted in Marine Park’s wild west side a week ago: the identity of this bird baffled me for while. And then it hit me. Young Brown-headed Cowbird (Molothrus ater). This bird was raised by another species, for Brown-headed Cowbirds are brood parasites: they lay…
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Orange Bluet
Most of the bluet damselflies are, you guessed it, blue, but this one bucks the trend. Sort of: this is a mature male, but when he was younger, he had blue markings instead of these orange ones. Enallagma signatum.
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Butterfly Showcase
Starting to see a few Monarchs (Danaus plexippus) out and about. And the Black Swallowtails (Papilio polyxenes) are also active now. Male above, female below, I think. Eastern Tiger Swallowtail(Papilio glaucus) female. A very conspicuous butterfly, both for her size (4-4.5″ wingspan) and her bold tiger-like patterning. Males lack the deep blue. But wait! Delaying…
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Tyrannus tyrannus
The Eastern Kingbird. What a binomial, eh?This one took a large bumblebee to a branch and battered it for a bit before gobbling it down.
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Monks Eat With Their Hands
Monk Parakeets (Myiopsitta monachus) munching on fresh Hemlock cones.Here, if you’re doing eye-flips over wild parrots in Brooklyn, is more information about these Andean-origin birds.Usually fairly skittish, these raucous birds were so intent on eating that half a dozen of them tolerated us standing not so far away from them for a while. At least…
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Marmota Monax Update
How many Groundhog/Woodchucks are there in Brooklyn? We saw three the other day.These two were munching near a burrow now completely covered by understory growth. The second pictured here was rather smaller than the first, so perhaps it was a youngster. The third of the day’s Whistlepigs was some distance away.
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Sand Crab
The Atlantic Sand Crab (Emerita talpoida) is also known as the mole crab and the sand flea (confusingly, since there are, in fact, amphipod sand fleas).These streamlined animals are, at any rate, crustaceans. As Sarah Oktay explains from the place I first came across them, they are surf-zone specialists, and pretty important in that harsh…
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Fireflies
You know what I like about this blogging project of mine? The fact that there is always something new to learn. It’s the universe, after all, and I will never ever even begin to contain it.For instance, this is one of the Lampyridae family of beetles, the fireflies, lightning bugs, glowworms. But hold on a…
Backyard and Beyond 