Fieldnotes
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Coppicing
Two kinds of woodlands seen along the Dartmoor Way: A conifer plantation, planted mid-last century, looking rather majestic but also, well, rather — although hardly all — sterile. Houndtor Woods, a Woodlands Trust area near Manaton.Trees of many trunks in a hardwood forest, looking deeply lush with its attendant mosses and other understory plants. A…
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British Birds 2
A cornucopia of corvids!Magpie (Pica pica), seen throughout my walk, usually flying away from a field. This one was in London, and was the first bird I photographed on this trip. There was even one in the backyard of my hotel in London, on Norfolk Square, heard more often than seen. A magnificent animal, absurdly…
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British Birds 1
Male Tufted Duck (Aythya fuligula) at the London Wetland Centre.A very fresh Moorhen chick (Gallinula chloropus) in the garden of the Natural History Museum. Chick and a juvenile. The kids grow up fast.Great Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopos major) outside my window in Buckfastleigh.Wood pigeon (Columba palumbus) nesting at the Totnes railroad station.Male Chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs) at…
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PSA: Know Your Starlings
And your Grackles. This is currently on exhibit at Brooklyn Bridge Park’s Photo Wall. These not-grackles are in fact European Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris). Mortimer! For Common Grackle (Quiscalus quiscula), see here. For Boat-tailed Grackle (Q.major), hang out at Jamaica Bay and you might get lucky. For Great-tailed Grackle (Q. mexicanus), try the Southwest US and…
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London Wetland Centre
Polar explorer Robert Falcon Scott wrote to his wife about their only child — who he of course did not get to see grow up — “make the boy interested in natural history if you can; it is better than games.” This is a statue of that child grown up, Peter Markham Scott (1909-1989), naturalist,…
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A grand trip
I’ve returned from England, where I walked the 90 or so miles of the Dartmoor Way, with a few short and long cuts in between, and so many ups and downs, my calves are now like iron and my heart is ten years younger. By the way, the butts of bumblebees there are a rainbow…
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Several Planes at Once
I think this may be one of the largest trees I’ve seen outside of the Coast Redwoods. Click on this image to make it larger, and note the fits-four-adults bench at the base of the bole, just past the lamp post. It’s a London Plane (Platanus × acerifolia), gifted by the Vassar College Class of…
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Variations on Legs
Fiddler crabs in the tiny patch of ever-so-green right now salt marsh at Pier One. On the jumbly rocks next to it, a number of these spiders:I have returned from a two week trip abroad. I have a new computer. I am ready to blog again.A young New World Robin, SO different from the Old…
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‘Till Next Time
Many of the Magicicadas never had a chance.But those that did survive to breed have laid their eggs by now, setting in process yet again the long-term strategy of this genus of periodical cicada. The eggs are planted in branches. Once they hatch, the tiny nymphs will drop down to the ground, to burrow into…
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Backyard and Beyond 