Fieldnotes
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The long and winding beach
The low winter sun made the vegetation capping the cliff cast long shadows of late Matisse dancers. Calendars mean less than they used to, though: it was in the mid-60s, and there were fresh prints of bare feet in the sand, sign of a freer spirit than I.On the left, a male Bufflehead (Bucephala albeola),…
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Ten Thousand Trees
New York City lost ten thousand trees in the great storm. Many other trees had limbs torn asunder, like the one pictured above, whip-snapped by the fierce winds. By now, the streets and parks have largely, but not completely, been cleared of this wreckage, but the gaps will be around for a long time, in…
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Fahnestock
Clarence Fahnestock Memorial State Park is in Putnam County and rather inaccessible to us public transport types. But a friend who lives nearby joined us and we HOVed there to explore a tiny bit of the 16,000 acre park, walking around Pelton Pond. This was originally man-made and then CCC-improved, and except for the strange…
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Evening Grosbeak
A female Evening Grosbeak (Coccothraustes vespertinus) making a rare appearance in Prospect Park. It has been around for a few days. This was this morning at 10:30. The last recorded sighting of this species was a dozen years ago, and before that, 1989. On the right is another member of the finch family, a Pine…
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Two Invasives
One strategy for taking over the world is just to produce massive amounts of your kind. Some of ’em are going to take. Sometimes a whole lot of them are going to take. Here are the reproductive agents of two introduced species that have become invasive in our part of the world:Water chestnut, devil pod,…
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Old Fungus
That mushroom I photographed in October growing on this wooden fence was still there last week, looking rather lurid now.
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Teeth
The tooth on the left was found at Dead Horse Bay. I think it’s actually two fused together because of the four roots. This is what I photographed for my Mystery post early this month. The one on the right was part of a horse’s skull found on the beach in Italy in the early…
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Dunlin
My, what long bills you have. Dunlin, Calidris alpina, a species of sandpiper. A winter visitor in our region; these were walking just a few feet away from us on Hummock Pond a week ago. Their breeding plumage, as in so many other birds, is more colorful: rufus backs and black bellies. They breed along…
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Everywhere
Some phragmites, and at least one, maybe two, other species have colonized this old whatever-it-is high above the D train at 9th Avenue, Sunset Park. Update: This structure is part of Bay Ready Mix Concrete.
Backyard and Beyond 