Fieldnotes
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Liquidambar
I did a double-take over these. They are similar to the pods of the American Sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua):but smaller and with much longer points; these are evidently persistent styles. (The pods look rather Goth after they have opened up and dried out.) Also, the leaves are three-lobed: Our Sweetgum has five to seven lobes:So at…
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1000 Urban Miles, Part I
Or six and a half miles to start with… I walked down Clinton Street, still fairly leafy, with yellowing Ginkgo in particular still hanging on, but no female trees along this stretch; their tell-tale fruit, crushed upon the sidewalk, did stench up other sections of my route. The fig growing on a side street is…
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Put A Fish On It
Seen within a couple blocks of each other recently on Centre St. in the Inner Borough. Above, business card on the street. Below: throw pillow through a window (…it would be a serious pillow to be able to break the glass).Now, you may protest that a whale is not a fish, as do I. A…
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Silent Nests
Revealed by the thinning of the leaves, two more Bald-faced Hornet (Dolichovespula maculata) nests:Note the differences in the color pattern of the wood-pulp paper between the above nest and the one below. I have some paper that is predominately reddish, but the one above is the usual pattern I see here in Brooklyn. The all-gray…
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Thrush Hushed
A Hermit Thrush (Catharus guttatus), much in evidence in the parks now as they head south, who didn’t make it. Hit a window in Coney Island.
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Eclipsed
The hybrid eclipse of the Sun this morning was mostly drowned in the clouds over the Rockaway Peninsula. A little bit of our life-giving star was briefly visible, through Nate’s DIY binocular hack, with the dark curve of Moon upon it. Still, a gorgeous morning to watch the sunrise from the oceanside end of the…
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Forever
A taxidermy representation of a Great Auk (Pinguinus impennis), a species hunted to extinction by the mid-19th century. This was the largest Alcid, up to a three feet tall and weighing some 11 lbs. They were flightless but excellent swimmers in the cold, fish rich waters of the north. The bird’s scientific name was later…
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Low hanging fruit
I hope your Halloween was without plastic, styrofoam, and corn syrup.
Backyard and Beyond 