Fieldnotes
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Is this heaven?
Well, I can’t speak to that question, having no expertise in the matter, but I can tell you that this picture is in fact of a part of Brooklyn, New York, borough of 2.5 million-plus people. Welcome to Backyard and Beyond, where I explore the natural history of the urban frontier. I hope you like…
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Forecast: Cottonwood Flurries
Eastern Cottonwoods (Populus deltoides) pods are peeling back and letting rip, launching kerjillions of seeds on the wind.This is why they call them “cottonwood.”And piled up like snow. Photos above from Brooklyn Bridge Park. Photo below from Broad Channel:Stand down-wind of one.
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The day in birds
My day in birds began just after 5 a.m. when I woke to the pre-dawn chorus of the local House Sparrows. Argh! I grumbled something and rolled over. Between rain clouds, I went out to Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge in the middle of the day. Some thirty-seven species of birds and three mosquito bites. Many…
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Premature Juneberries
Some of the local Amelanchier (a.k.a. Shadblow, Serviceberry, etc.) berries are purple-ripe. Others are coming along fast:Gowanus street top, Brooklyn Bridge Park bottom.
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Horseshoe Moon
Can you feel it? The Horseshoe crabs (Limulus polyphemus) sure can. It’s spawning season. Here, looking like rocks, are some males awaiting females and clusters of males attached to, and surrounding, females. Could it be their multiple optical systems, including compound eyes and UV sensors? Could it be their one hundred thousand cuticular receptors, allowing…
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C. serpentina
Over the weekend, I saw three big Snapping Turtles (Chelydra serpentina) in Green-Wood Cemetery. This is the time of year they emerge from the murk of ponds and lakes to reproduce, the female often travelling long distances to find soft earth, dirt, or fine gravel in which to bury her clutch of eggs. Unlike in…
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Salamanders in Da Bronx
As part of New York City Wildflower Week, I went up to Van Cortlandt Park in the nether reaches of the Bronx to join Ellen Pehek in turning over some old wood. Ellen is the NYC Parks & Rec Principal Research Ecologist and involved in a study monitoring Eastern Red-backed salamanders (Plethodon cinereus). How do…
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Below the bridge
This view is like a dream sometimes. Also spotted in Brooklyn Bridge Park:
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Galls and Crane Fly
A two-fer in this shot of a Witch Hazel leaf:This is a boom year for the Witch Hazel Cone Gall-maker (Hormaphis hamamelidis), an aphid. Read more about these tiny insects and how they force the American Witch-Hazel (Hamamelis virginiana) to create these protective cone forms around their young. For more about the endlessly fascinating galls…
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Viburnum Leaf Beetle (Corrected)
If you read this, you are probably also reading Marielle Anzelone’s Spring series at the New York Times. If not you should be. Yesterday’s article introduced us to the Viburnum Leaf Beetle (Pyrrhalta viburni) an invading species which devours Viburnum species, especially Arrowwood (Viburnum dentatum). EDITED & UPDATED 7/28/15: I was incorrect about this. VLB…
Backyard and Beyond 