Fieldnotes
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I Like Lichens
It being such a mizzling day, I needed some color. Luckily, this kind of weather brings out the vibrancy of the lichens on our street trees.Air pollution is generally bad news for lichens, as is ozone depletion. Walking through City Hall Park in Manhattan just before I took these shots on Union Street in Brooklyn,…
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Sweetgum Fruit
The spiky, dried fruits of the Sweetgum tree, Liquidamber styraciflua, often persist on the tree through winter. A strong wind can bring them down to the sidewalk, where the jagged orbs look otherworldly. Each fruit is composed of 40-60 capsules, which are now long since emptied of their seeds. A native tree, and a regular…
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A Raft of Ducks
In Dead Horse Bay, thousands of Great Scaup, Aythya marila, are rafting together.
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Western Lights
The sun sets over New York Harbor, New Jersey, and the great darkening mass of the Republic. Photo from Brooklyn Bridge Park.
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Don’t Dump Your Turtle
One of the search phrases that’s led people to this blog more than once is about “releasing pet turtles in Prospect Park.” People want to know if it’s OK to do so. The answer is: no, it isn’t, and you shouldn’t ~ which is what I hope they learned from the internet. But, considering that…
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Coot
The American Coot, dwarfed by a juvenile Mute Swan in both perspective and actuality, is a Prospect Park regular, but never in very large numbers. There were several on the Lake last week, and a surprising dozen plus at the Boat House. Although duck-like, Coots (Fulica americana) are actually Gruiformes, or rails (I saw their…
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Three Heart-Shaped Leaves
Catalpa:The tree with the foot-long seed pods. Both the Northern Catalpa, C. speciosa, and the Southern Catalpa, C. bignonioides, grow in our region. The ones in Brooklyn Bridge Park may be some kind of cultivar or hybrid. Eastern cottonwoods, Populus deltoides, growing wild in the as yet uncompleted part of the park.Note here the flat…
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Feeders
Approaching the bird feeders in Prospect Park, I heard several Blue Jays screeching. The feeders themselves were completely abandoned, which is a sure sign of something going on, although there were Downy Woodpeckers, House Finches, Red-winged Blackbirds, and Mourning Doves all around in the trees. The male Red-wings are generally one of the earliest birds…
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Short Note on Winter Birding
The New York City region is, for some birds, “the south” they migrated to in winter. Open fresh water and sheltered salt water bodies attract ducks like Pintails, Wigeons, Gadwells, Canvasbacks, Red-heads, Scaups, Mergansers, Buffleheads, Shovellers, Teals, Long-tailed, and Scoters. The Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge in the late afternoon is home to an amazing display…
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“How many of us, and how often, think of the fact that we live our time on a planet, within that planet’s time? What good is it to be alive on Earth and never come to know at least the place where one lives? We don’t even try to know it with our senses, much…
Backyard and Beyond 