Fieldnotes
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More Two-Spotted Ladybugs
The Catalpa trees grow and the big heart-shaped leaves attract aphids, lots of aphids. The aphids, tiny little white sucking machines, coat the leaves with their “dew” — what goes in must come out in some form — which in turn attracts ants and wasps. The aphids themselves attract ladybugs, hungry little beasts. All the…
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Seen Today
At Pier One, Brooklyn Bridge Park: an adult female Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) perched on some Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata). It didn’t look like she was laying eggs, but this would be a good place for them. Is it too late for a brood? Is she one of the last generation of this year’s Monarchs,…
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Heron Trio
From back to front, a Great Blue Heron, a Great Egret, and a Snowy Egret. Salt-marshing in Brooklyn. Heron. Egret. What’s the difference? “Egret” comes from the Fr. aigrette, which seems to have come out the Old High German heigir, which means… heron. But then you know a hawk from a handsaw, right? Hamlet should…
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Staten Inferno
On Wednesday, I offered up a little slice of heaven in New York City, a NY-state protected piece of Staten Island. Sadly, though, a lot of Staten Island has been turned into hell, another slab of the undifferentiated suburban sprawl that has trashed so much of the rest of the US, through mis-guided development, greed,…
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Katydids
The trees are alive with the sound of music. At night. Katydids and crickets stridulating away, rubbing the pegged “file” of one wing against the ridge-like scraper of the other to produce those clicks, tisps, buzzes, etc. Each species has a distinctive sound: it’s the males marking their territory and calling to the females. Bonus…
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Butterfly Meadow
The glorious meadow at Mt. Loretto, a New York State “unique area” at the southern end of Staten Island. (Used to be a lot more like it, of course… SI’s development mirrors the post-war suburban destruction of unique areas.) It was abloom with butterflies recently. Here are a few of the species I saw: Pearl…
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Bobolink
Bobolink (Dolichonyx oryzivorus) perching at Marine Park Nature Center. This is the adult, non-breeding plumage. The species migrates to southern South America. Like many grassland species, its numbers are dropping because of habitat loss.
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Elegy for Martha
One hundred years ago today, Martha died of old age in Cincinnati. She was 29 years old and had been raised since birth in captivity. She never reproduced.Martha was the last of her species, the Passenger Pigeons (Ectopistes migratorius). Of course, by the time of her demise, the species was already functionally extinct in the…
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Common Nighthawks
It’s been a difficult week. But one of the highlights was on Thursday, when a friend and I went into Prospect Park in the late afternoon. Just before sunset, we were in the Nethermead. Overhead, the chittering of many Chimney Swifts was heard as the little birds darted all over the sky taking their last…
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Future Odes
Eastern Amberwings (Perithemis tenera) in the reproductive wheel: the male holds the female by the back of the head; the female curves her abdomen up and forwards his genitalia, located (counterintuitively?) at the base of his abdomen. A female Blue Dasher (Pachydiplax longipennis) dipping her abdomen down to lay fertilized eggs in a bit of…
Backyard and Beyond 