Fieldnotes
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Eggs
The other day I was rinsing off some organic tatsoi from Florida and found this egg clump. Tatsoi is a brassica — jeez, what isn’t this time of year? — so I compared these to pictures of Cabbage White (Pieris rapae) eggs, on the off-chance… but no dice. If anybody recognizes them, give a holler.
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Smoke On The Water
Yesterday’s bone-cold weather created an interesting phenomenon that made it look like the Upper Harbor was smoking. The combination of very cold air, zero on the Fahrenheit scale and feeling even colder because of the wind, and the warmer water made for a kind of low level fog clumping and billowing on the blue harbor.…
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Flower Power
A trip to the NYBG on October 30th gleaned these still-bloomers, which I have hoarded until this cold winter day. Now, isn’t a living flower so much better than a dead one? And look, they’re not covered with poisons, as most of the roses people are buying today will be. Also, these free-growing plants are…
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Wing Complex
In addition to an entire dead Common Loon on the rocks of the jetty pier at Bush Terminal Park, there was this wing. I looked at it and was at a loss for what it might be. It didn’t hit any of the song bird possibilities, and this time of year those are much reduced.…
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Loon Lost
A Common Loon (Gavia immer) dead on the rocks at Bush Terminal Park. Paul Sweet, of the American Museum of Natural History, was there and showed us the prominent ridge of the sternum, which should have been smothered in fat and muscle. This suggested to him that this fish-devouring diver probably starved to death. Sometimes…
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Ravens, Still
I haven’t been getting out and about as much as I’d like. In the last month or so, I’d only seen Ravens twice. Two separate instances of a single bird. They aren’t always together, but the Bush Terminal birds are usually seen in some kind of airborne proximity. These birds work together well in pairs…
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Day Hawk
Hello!An overcast day, but from a distance a shape in a tree along the edge of Sunset Park attracts the eye.Accipiters aren’t known for perching long. This Cooper’s stuck around long enough for me to go inside and return with my camera. My lens is better than my eyes: the gory remains of lunch are…
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Night Hawk
What do birds do at night? It’s clearly a question people find intriguing. But you probably already know the answer even if you don’t know much about birds. Most birds are diurnal, so like most of us they sleep at night. And like us, they usually tuck themselves away somewhere safe and sound. In the…
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Another Sunset Park Elm
Knots, galls, cankers? Whatever is going on here makes for a massive bole. This is one of a pair in front of an apartment named Elmo…
Backyard and Beyond 