Fieldnotes
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Summer Whine
You spend years underground sucking on tree roots. And then, three to seven years after birth (accounts differ; species differ), you dig your way up out of the ground. How do you know when to do this? You’re in your fifth instar stage, by the way, when you do. Assuming you haven’t been concreted over,…
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Here be Whales
Thar she blows! Megaptera novaeangliae. We were off the Atlantic Highlands of New Jersey on board the Whale and Dolphin cruise of the American Princess out of Riis Landing at Fort Tilden on the Rockaways. And we saw a humpback whale spouting and rounding its bulk through the water. Whoa! A whale within sight of…
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Inside and Outside
I read somewhere recently that we, all of us, are always within two or three feet of a spider. There are untold billions of them in the world, and some of them do like the comforts of a less an immaculately kept house. This is one of (at least) two species that likes my bathroom.Right…
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Turtles in trees?
Come to think of it, I’ve now seen two turtle shells in crotches of trees in Prospect Park. One was just within hand’s reach, the other required a friend and a stick to bring it back down to earth. Considering the number of turtle shells I’ve seen in the park, two in the trees is…
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Two wasps
Both of these were spotted in Central Park:Bald-faced hornet (Dolichovespula maculata). These are the social wasps that make the large, football-shaped paper nests you see in trees, especially in winter. The nests are completely inactive in winter and unused the following year. The wasp is chewing the old wood of this tree; it’s how they…
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Gowanus Fish
Life in the Gowanus, and I don’t mean the mythological Carroll Gardens flipper-baby frogmen that are supposedly heard plopping and flopping in the greasy water on still moonless nights.
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Barge Music
Ten Barn Swallows (Hirundo rustica) perching on the hull of Bargemusic at Fulton Ferry Landing on a recent morning. The swallows patrol Brooklyn Bridge Park and the Promenade above for insects caught in mid-air. They should be heading south in about a month or two.
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Prospect Park Summer
One of the parent swans had just nearly kicked the ass of yet another unleashed dog.I think they were hanging outside their lamp-post nest because it was even more blazingly hot inside. But, I didn’t stick around long enough to ask, or even to focus all that well.
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Fruiting Body
The natural world erupts into my consciousness — sight, sound, smell — the key is observation, a practice especially challenging in the hyperactive, sense-whelming city. Here I am planning to cross a highway on-ramp while not being run over, dodging masses of pigeon droppings under an overpass, noticing a fruit on the sidewalk. Looking up.…
Backyard and Beyond 