Fieldnotes
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Shagbark Hickory
Carya ovata produces thick-fleshed fruit, which dries out to hard four-quarter shell protecting the inner nutshell. Most of them fall to the ground before splitting, or being split/gnawed/chewed by our fellow mammals, but this one was still up on a twig.
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Painted Bunting
A rare, resplendent adult male Painted Bunting (Passerina ciris) has been in Prospect Park for two weeks now, attracting an enormous amount of media attention and hordes of viewers. Note this big seed-cracking bunting bill. The bird has stuck to the area around and atop the new ice-skating complex, which has a green roof. The…
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Armchair Naturalist at Sunrise
A Grey Squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) scouting out House Sparrow (Passer domesticus) cribs as a scrum of sparrows protest. Bit late in the year for eggs or young in these hideaways, innit?
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Black-headed Gull
The other exotic bird in Prospect Park lately is a Black-headed Gull (Chroicocephalus ridibundus), which is common in Europe but scanter on this side of the Atlantic. I first saw them in Scotland in 2006. Over here, the coast of Canada is where you might normally expect to see one during the winter. The black…
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Lichenworld II
More marvelous lichens from Nantucket.And amidst them, a tiny mushroom.
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Lichenworld I
Lichens are extremely sensitive to air pollution, so we don’t have all that many here in the city. We’re missing out on an amazing little universe as a result, one we’ve gotten used to not seeing. This is a perfect example of the way environmental destruction isn’t noticed: as species decline and disappear, we become…
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Mourning Dove
Zenaida macroura.A bird probably taken too much for granted by bird-watchers.Note the pale blue eye-ring. Watch long enough and you’ll see that the nictating membrane is the same color.
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Great Swamp
And so much lichen! The whitish looking parts of these trees are actually lichen in the bright sun. Lichen needs fairly clean air to grow, which is why it is generally — but not completely — absent from NYC.
Backyard and Beyond 