Fieldnotes
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Exotic Bishop
An Orange or Red Bishop in Prospect Park. I don’t know if it’s a Southern (Euplectes orix) or a Northern (E. franciscanus)*. This is an escaped — or idiot-released — exotic, a victim of the pernicious avian pet trade. Native to Africa, there are now a few small breeding populations in TX and CA.The ring…
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Rough Stinker
One of the Brochymena genus Rough Stink Bugs. I think this may be an instar of B. quadripustulata, since it has the four spots or bumps, but the shield pattern isn’t quite like an adult’s (yet). These stink bugs are cryptically colored to blend in with bark, but they really stick out on a leaf.…
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Meet the Herons
Members of the family of Green Herons (Butorides virescens) in the Lullwater. The youngsters are yammering at each other, one of the parents is on the left. Now, let’s get some more details of one of the streaky-necked juveniles:A little neck-scratching, a little crest-spreading. Love the eyes, which a human like me reads as “intense.”…
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Sphex
For the budding naturalists I met in the park while photographing these wasps, which of course I couldn’t remember the name of. There were about half a dozen on this milkweed, more than I’ve ever seen at once. This is the Great Black Wasp (Sphex pensylvanicus). The adults, like many of the big wasps, are…
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Flying Now
The Common Sootywing (Pholisora catullus). A tiny — wingspan is less than an inch — fluttery butterfly, that looks black from a distance, but up close is revealed to be a rich brown.
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Uh-oh
Is this going to end like Bambi Meets Godzilla? (Click on the image if you have a tiny screen for the full nailed-claw effect.) Well, probably not, as this is the turtle’s back leg and the reptile may not even be aware of the Pondhawk’s presence. And while Pondhawks are certainly serious contenders in their…
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C/CKW
The Cicada Killer Wasps (Sphecius speciosus) are out and about now, collecting pollen at flowers to eat, stabbing cicadas for their young…I’m not telling, but here’s a Dog Day cicada (genus Tibicen), more heard than seen by we ground-huggers.The two wasps pictured above are males. They’re smaller than the females. Here’s a female, scare-the-horses-ginormous, patrolling…
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Lilypad Forktail
Lilypad Forktail (Ischnura kellicotti) male damselfly on a lily pad. The location was a big clue to identifying this small damselfly (a fair number of damselfly species are electric blue), which spends its life on and around waterlilies. The downward bending of the abdomen tip when it poses is also characteristic of this species. The…
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Carolina Wren
Carolina Wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus) on a chessboard. Usually more often heard than seen, for this little bird has a big, big voice that rolls through the woods.Here using its tail feathers woodpecker-style, for support against the vertical as it goes about gleaning for insects.
Backyard and Beyond 