Fieldnotes
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Confused Tulips
More likely a confused blogger. I am informed by a sharp-eyed reader that these are autumn crocuses, Colchicum speciosum, not tulips (their stalks were distinctly pallid, making me think they were ailing tulips). At the very southern end of the Promenade right now. With two species of ants exploring their tender hearts.
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Mantids Take Brooklyn Bridge Park
I’ll be giving a tour for Brooklyn Bridge Park volunteers tomorrow. What will we see? Here are some of the things I’ve run into in the Park in the two years it has been open. And here’s the latest sighting:Chinese mantid, Tenodera aridifolia. Introduced to the U.S. in the late 19th century to go after…
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Re-blooming
A resurgent Magnolia bloom, as sweet smelling and disconcerting as early spring. Yesterday afternoon, Atlantic Avenue entrance to Brooklyn Bridge Park.
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Grasshopper
Almost two inches long, and with bold chevrons on their hind femurs, the Differential Grasshoppers (Melanoplus differentialis) are out and about now and engaged in making little grasshoppers for the future. They are fans of the Polygonum smartweeds, which grow practically anywhere, which means you might stumble across one (grasshopper, plant) in the midst of…
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Underside and inside
European paper wasp, Polistes diminula. Through a window. It was a cold morning, the first of the nascent fall, and this individual was hardly moving, waiting to warm up with the sun. This European import, introduced to the U.S. only in the late 1960s and now wide-spread, has markings similar to some of the yellow…
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This used to be a parking space
Now it’s all covered in flowers. (Tip of the hat to the Talking Heads for the misquote, and here’s D. Byrne doing it on his own for the last day of summer.)
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Blackpoll in BBP
From the air, or, as in this case, the great bridge, Brooklyn Bridge Park’s Pier 1 is an island of green. We’re not the only species that sees and enjoys this. Recently a migrating Eastern Red Bat was noticed resting through the daylight. Yesterday, I saw three species of warblers in the park. They’ve dropped…
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Spiderlings
Last month, I watched a spider feed heartily and then build a silken sac for her young. Two weeks ago, the young spiderlings emerged from the sac. And just sat there for several days. Then the mother spider disappeared. And a few days after that, all the little ones. In the outdoors, some young spiders…
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Brooklyn Bridge Park
It’s the middle of September, but Brooklyn Bridge Park is still hopping. And flitting. And flirting. And… but see below. Noted yesterday, most often spotted first by my eagle, or should I say bug? -eyed companions:Gray Hairstreak, Strymon melinus, a small butterfly that looks like it could be going either way.Baby Gray Catbird, Dumetella carolinensis.…
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Far Southern Queens
Yellow Queen Honey from Greenpoint. To the Honey Festival at Beach 96th and the Boardwalk on the Rockaway Peninsula yesterday, where the beach was swarming with Black Saddlebags dragonflies. Like Monarch butterflies, the Black Saddlebags are migratory. (Until fairly recently, I didn’t know that some dragonfly species migrated. Natural history is an arena of near-infinite…
Backyard and Beyond 