Fieldnotes
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Patriotism
The very red eye of an adult Eastern Towhee feeding its noisy, grey fledgling, well into a thicket but visible through binoculars, a caterpillar meal. A Cormorant sanding on the beach with its lower bill wedged into a hardshell clam. Who had who there? A Buckeye, keeping low, but unmistakable with that eyespot pattern.Low to…
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Small Milkweed Bug
Yes, there’s a Large Milkweed Bug, too. This is Lygaeus kalmii. The bright colors are warning you, o bug-eating one, that this critter is a bitter pill to swallow: sucking on milkweed juice — as a true bug of the Hemiptera order, it’s a sucker not a chewer — makes it so.
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Common Tern
“Comintern”? It’s a wonder these things weren’t exterminated during the Cold War. Sterna hirundo. This one was fishing from the pier, leaning over and examining the water for several moments before dropping down to capture a small fry. A couple of days later, I saw another, or perhaps the same bird, perching on the pier,…
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On Jamaica Bay
Aboard the Golden Sunset out of Sheepshead Bay with the American Littoral Society’s Jamaica Bay Ecology Cruise. Looking across Jo Co’s Marsh towards You Know Where, which is about nine miles away as the crow flies. Speaking of flying, JFK is immediately to the right, launching planes one after the other, including the somewhat terrifying…
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Fledgling
Northern Mockingbird in Brooklyn Bridge Park about an hour ago. This may be the very bird noted by a fellow BBP scout.
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Pollinators
I took a walk through Brooklyn Bridge Park yesterday afternoon. It was very windy, which made photographing flying insects quite a challenge. I saw my first Monarch butterflies of the year, as well as an American Lady. Black Saddlebags dragonfly. Great Northern Bumblebee (amongst a host of small, medium, and large bumblebees I am otherwise…
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Sheepshead Bay
Ten piers, ten local creatures of the sea.
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Ladybugs: Aphid-Eaters
Checker Spot ladybug (Propylea quatuordecimpunctata) munching on an aphid wing. Laval-stage lady beetles are also great aphid-devourers. This is why a number of different species of lady bugs have been introduced into North America over the years: to attack the real destruction aphids can cause. The Checker Spots were one such introduction.The Multi-colored Asian lady…
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Plant Suckers
Being only an irregular gardener, I haven’t had much experience with real aphid infestations. But now I think I understand why the little plant suckers are so loathed. Brooklyn Bridge Park has a couple of infestations right now: red aphids on sunflowers and yellow ones on milkweeds.There are more than 1,300 species of aphids (Aphididae)…
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Honeydew Economy
Aphids produce honeydew, a sugary by-product, or excreta, of all that plant sucking they do. Ants, among other creatures, love the energy-rich stuff, and so harvest it from the aphids. They will also protect the aphids from aphid-predators, as if they were shepherds watching over the herd.
Backyard and Beyond 