Fieldnotes
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Starling Excavation
The European Starling, rather vulgarly branded by the taxonomists as Sturnus vulgaris, was introduced to New York because some idiot wanted to see all of Shakespeare’s birds in the New World. Cf. “I’ll have a starling shall be taught to speak/Nothing but ‘Mortimer,’ and give it him/To keep his anger still in motion.” ~ Hotspur,…
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Sparrow Duplex
The House Sparrow, Passer domesticus, is an Old World sparrow unrelated to the numerous species of New World sparrows. The bird has spread around the world to general urban ubiquity; they were introduced to North America — among other places, they were let loose right here in New York City in the 1880s — initially…
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Spring Beauties
We found two woodland wildflowers in bloom yesterday on Staten Island:Trout Lily, a.k.a. Yellow Adder’s Toungue (!) Erythronium americanum. Lots of these handsome, mottled leaves poking out of the carpet of leaf litter. Note that the particular plants above are single-leaf. It’s the ones with two leaves that produce a flower:A buzz of insects were…
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Skunk Cabbage, Take Two
So I just missed the blooming of the skunk cabbage this year. In fact, I’ve never seen it. The photo in my previous post was taken in the Native Flora Garden at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden on Tuesday; there were just a few post-bloom leaves there. The pictures in this post come from today on…
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Skunk Cabbage
Exciting news: the Native Flora Garden at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden is expanding by two more acres, more than doubling the space. Think globally, plant locally. (But, erhm, what’s happening to the Rock Garden? I love those erratic glacial boulders, hardy pieces of the mainland.) I was in the 100-year-old original section of NFG the…
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Spring Loaded
About two weeks earlier than last year, the fruity ornamentals amongst us have erupted. Genus Prunus of the family Rosaceae encompasses the cherries and plums, and cherry plums, and apricots, and quinces, and even peaches — Callery pears also blooming now are another genus w/in Rosaceae– and these small-blossomed beauties are out and about now…
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Springpink
Just about the perfect spring color.If you hurry, you can see the real thing at the magnolia madness at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.
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Neighbor
There’s a Kentucky Coffeetree (Gymnocladus dioica) on the street around the corner. This Midwesterner is a fairly uncommon tree here in the city, but a few are scattered on the streets and in the parks. It is on the official street tree list, in the form of the suggested cultivar “Espresso” (cute). Male and female…
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Spring’s sprung
Spring officially started early this morning, but it’s been bursting out for more than a month now. These pictures are from last week in the Brooklyn Bridge Park.
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Backyard and Beyond 