Fieldnotes
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Native Flora Garden
In the Brooklyn Botanic Garden yesterday morning. It was still dripping from the rain under the trees, even though it had long since stopped raining. Our woods in leaf always hold onto the rain. Next to the present NFG, the Garden is working on a major expansion to allow for less shade-dominated habitats found in…
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Cardinal Chicks
Looking somewhat like Muppets, two Northern Cardinal chicks realize there is no food forthcoming from the camera. Normally at this stage in their careers, they are all about open mouths — wide, wide mouths, like so:These birds will quickly get bigger, feather out, and fledge, or fly out from the nest. (This site gives details…
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Never the same beach twice
The Cliff along Nantucket’s north side is a time-and-tide whittled slice through the north side of the terminal moraine, the long pile of glacial till left over when the ice retreated. Long Island was made the same way, and its north side has cliffs like these, too. The cliff here is eroded by the sea,…
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Mother’s Day Bouquet (Living Flowers)
Some flowers for my mother, who passed a decade ago, and all the other mothers out there. Paulownia tormentosa is in bloom. Rich, heady perfume. Look to your empty lots, backyards, and canal bridges.Star-of-Bethlehem (Ornithogalum umbellatum) is another escapee from the reservation. A native of Europe, this Lily family member has basal leaves that are…
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Just Listen
How do silent movies make their way into a blog about natural history? I was struck by something Geoffrey O’Brien wrote in the May 24th New York Review of Books. Discussing last year’s homage to silent movies The Lover and Hugo, O’Brien notes how differently our minds behave when we watch silent films. Tomorrow morning…
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American Copper
Lycaena phlaeas. Common name aside, the East Coast population of this small butterfly is thought to have been introduced from Europe during the colonial period, probably on the sheep sorrel its larva feeds on. It is notably associated with these invasive sorrels, and often found on disturbed habitats like roads and lawns, where I’ve photographed…
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On Nantucket
Going to Nantucket is like going two weeks back into the past. Spring comes a little later there, even in this year of early spring. Although just a touch more north of us here in NYC, the island is thirty miles off-shore and surrounded by an ocean holding onto its cold. The Japanese Flowering Cherries…
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The Hunt for Red Admiral
Red Admiral butterflies (Vanessa atalanta) are out in force this year, enough to be noticed by my radio station, WNYC. This is probably an East Coast phenomenon, as I was on Nantucket this weekend and saw many but photographed few. Being so fast, flighty, and flittery, butterflies are generally hard to photograph. Red Admirals are…
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In the mud
“Mr. Holmes, they were the prints of a gigantic hound!” Or at least a raccoon.
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Tell us again, Granddad, about ice
Today is Climate Impact Day, set up to connect the dots between climate change and extreme weather, effects felt from diatoms to humanity. What is past is prologue, and I think of two years ago when we flew back from Iceland. Our plane crossed over Greenland, and I took a few photographs through the jet’s…
Backyard and Beyond 