Fieldnotes
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Naval Cemetery Landscape
A prairie grows in Brooklyn, atop the decommissioned naval hospital cemetery at the Brooklyn Naval Yard. The Naval Cemetery Landscape is part of the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative. It is small, compact, and very grass-green.The day we visited last week was hot as global-warming-damned August, but the flowers will still mostly not yet in bloom.Some of…
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Sunset Park Elm
The intensity of summer green is settling in on our elm tree. A man was whacking his martial arts stick against the low-slung branch. I suppose I would eventually call 911 if it fell on him.
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Owlet
A Barn Owl (Tyto alba) toddler, looking rather alien, can just be glimpsed inside this nest box via long focus. Rather unique looking, Barn Owls are found all over the world, with some 46 recognized subspecies (!), including one on the Galapagos that is half the size of the North American version. Island dwarfism in…
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Solar Power
Great Heron (Ardea alba) and Green Heron (Butorides virescens) on the Crescent Water rotator-thingie (I think it churns up the water to get oxygen in there). The egret has just swallowed a golden fish. Check out those toes.A salute to solar energy, the basis of all life.
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Fleabane
Erigeron philadelphicus, if I’m not mistaken, which has more common names than you can shake a stem at, including Common, Philadelphia, and Daisy Fleabane, although the latter is generally E. annuus.
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Some Prospect Birds
American Robin (Turdus migratorius) fledgling. American Wood Duck (Aix sponsa) female and young.Same gloomy day. But the hovering gave away this American Kestrel (Falco sparverius) over Lookout Hill, just before it made a pass at some warblers.There were three species of sandpiper along the Lake edge: Spotted, Least, and, pictured: Semipalmated (Calidris pusilla).
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Horseshoe Moon
Horseshoe Crabs (Limulus polyphemus) mating on the shores of Jamaica Bay. It was the day after the full Moon, when the high tide lets them get farther up the beach, where they deposit their eggs.I have written much about these amazing non-crabs and how important they are to our health. I saw a headline the…
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Baltimore O
Baltimore Oriole (Icterus galbula) males don’t get their full, distinctive black and orange plumage until the fall of their second year of life. Which explains why this guy is only half way there. It’s too early, after all, for this year’s crop. According to Cornell’s All About Birds, this not-quite-dapper plumage doesn’t necessarily prevent them…
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The Red Hook Ks
Last year, I noticed an American Kestrel nest in a building on Van Brunt Street in Red Hook, Brooklyn. I learned from locals that it had been there for a few years. Last week, I got some really nice views of the pair in the late afternoon. This is the colorful male.And this is the…
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Buckeyes in Bloom
Common Horsechestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum), a species originally from SE Europe/Asia, now widely cultivated. Note that some are yellow inside, some pinkish-red; the latter have already been pollinated. Red Horsechestnut, a hybrid of Horsechestnut and Red Buckeye, Aesculus X carnea. (Unless it’s a hybrid of Red Buckeye and Yellow Buckeye, Aesculus X hybrida.) The above two…
Backyard and Beyond 