Fieldnotes
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Nymph, in thy orisons
On the left, the Nnmphal husk of the Dog Day or Annual Cicada (Tibicen sp.), and on the right, the Periodic, 17-Year Cicada (Magicicada sp.). The Dog Day husk is from last August, if not the one before that, but its toes are still quite sharp. They don’t cut the skin, but they sure do…
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Magicicadas
Seventeen years later, the genus Magicicada cicadas have emerged for the brief but glorious finale to their lives. Staten Island is the local epicenter for Brood II. Yesterday, Chris the Flatbush Gardener and I went in search of them, following an article in the Times that sent us to Clove Lakes Park. We scouted the…
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“Mortimer!”
A brand new Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) displays gray plumage and bottomless appetite. Right now, these recently fledged birds are hopping after their parents on the ground, demanding food. It’s early enough in the year that this bird’s parents could certainly have another brood, if not two more. This is one of the reasons this Eurasian-origin…
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Bugs and Blooms, Finally!
Aphids feasting on plant juices, a 14-spotted lady beetle (Propylea quatuordecimpunctata) and syrphid fly larva (h/t for the ID on this one, Lost Ladybug Project) feeding on aphids.
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Misc. May
These flowering cherry blossoms and the ones below were on the same tree. There was a single branch of the flowers (below) amid all the skirty pink ones:
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New Views, New Lives, New Camera
Nice contrast between the altricial young of the American Robin, with their eyes closed, featherless, and quite helpless, and the precocial Mallard ducklings, who are ready to rock (and swim, forage) almost instantly. Note how much bigger-looking the background bird is in the Robin nest: could this be a Cowbird or just an earlier hatch?…
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Swarm
At first they rise like little puffs of smoke from their ground nest. Then more and more of them emerge, small and unwieldy fliers, swarming into the humid air. They are termite reproductives, and a swarm of them brings birds to gobble them from the air. Stand there and watch as barn and tree swallows…
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Marsh Wren
A early evening walk in Brooklyn Bridge Park interrupted by a small, incessantly burbling bird at the northernmost of the Freshwater Garden ponds on Pier One. I spent quite a while listening and trying to get a picture of this elusive Marsh Wren (Cistothorus palustris), a bird fairly common in marshy areas, but not so…
Backyard and Beyond 