Fieldnotes
-
Remains of the night
Out Madaket way, a row of arbor vitae had been cut back recently because they were crowding the road. Underneath were dozens of bodies. Was it the work of a serial killer? No, some owls had been feeding. Pellets are what these regurgitated masses of prey vomited up by birds are called. A number of…
-
Soiled
“We overcrowd the world. The elements can hardly support us. Our wants increase and our demands are keener, while Nature cannot bear us.” Sound familiar? It sounds like it was stripped from today’s headlines, in the midst of a U.N. conference in Japan (where they’re eating dolphins, whales, and blue fin tuna to death) on…
-
Strange Fish
Back in March, I found a perfectly preserved northern pipefish on the coast of Brooklyn. When I found it, I didn’t know what it was, but I thought it looked like a straightened seahorse. It turns out that seahorses and pipefish are related, in the Syngnathidae family along with the seadragons. I’ve never seen a…
-
Architecture
Now that most of the leaves have fallen, it’s a good time to start looking for bald-faced hornet nests. These two samples are from Prospect Park. These nests are abandoned each year, so they are harmless in winter. Wasp queens are the only ones who survive the winter, and they do it underground, or deep…
-
Behind the scenes at AMNH
I will most likely never see the great majority of the planet’s 10,000 plus bird species, but I’m fine with that, since I’m not a competitive birder. I am, however, not happy about missing those species native to the East Coast that were exterminated long before I showed up: heath hen, Carolina parakeet, passenger pigeon.…
-
An Ancient Enemy
Last week, I killed a mosquito with gorgeous emerald green eyes in my girlfriend’s apartment. It was 3:30 in the morning, and for perhaps obvious reasons I did not think to photograph the remains. I did, however, think it would be the last of the pestilent blood-suckers for the year. But alas, no; last night,…
-
In Green-Wood
I have a confession to make: I’ve been cheating on Prospect Park. Yes, yes, I know, I know — how could I? Olmsted & Vaux & Stranahan’s great park, which beats the knickers off Central, is so lovely and sweet, but I guess Man isn’t made to be park-monogamous. It’s not like I feel good…
-
What a pair
A friend sent me this picture of birds this morning and it took a couple of minutes for me to figure out what they were. I’ve never seen them in the feather. They’re Europan Blue tits, Cyanistes caeruleus (formerly Parus caeruleus). The photo was taken in Sweden, where even the birds have a strong social…
-
Leaf-footed bug
When last we met an Acanthrocephala terminalis, in Massachusetts, I wasn’t on such firm ground about why its common name was “leaf-footed bug.” At Storm King in Mountainville, NY, we found another, which more clearly illustrates the source of the name. Evidently, the males display more of the leaf-like shape on the hind legs than…
-
Prospect Park Colors
The other day, I went looking for the Vesper sparrows that had been reported in the park. Fenced-in sections in the southern end of the Long Meadow, the area converted into the Ball Fields by Robert Moses, are providing excellent habitat for sparrows these days. The grasses are going to seed and there are still…
Backyard and Beyond 