Fieldnotes
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City of Water
Today: a couple of double-crested cormorant youngsters still on a nest on U Thant Island in the East River. Which, of course, isn’t a “river” at all. At best it’s a tidal strait. The Burmese U Thant, meanwhile, was the third Secretary-General of the UN (serving 1961-71); the island is a canon shot across the…
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Local hymenoptera
The sunflowers at Maize Field, at Bergen & Smith St., are swarming with pollinators these days. Nice comparison between a honey bee, on the left, and a wasp, on the right.
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Starfish
The Icelandic beaches were remarkably bare of anything other than rocks, pebbles, and sand. We found, in order of frequency, some mussel, scallop, snail, and limpet shells. But our best sightings were a number of starfish that had been washed ashore.
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Snipe
Everywhere except Reykjavik, on both ends of our Icelandic trip, we had sightings of the common snipe (Gallinago gallinago). This species is not to be confused with the related Wilson’s snipe, which we have in Brooklyn, and which was considered the same species until recently, making the confusion understandable. Above each of the farms we…
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Other Icelandic Animals
White-tailed bumblebee (Bombus locorum), seen a number of places in Iceland, finally digitally captured in the small garden behind the Parliament building. Besides birds, Iceland doesn’t have a lot of other animals, including invertebrates. The number of bugs is growing, though, as the world warms. Moths were a common sight, in the long diurnal light.…
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Wildflowers
I know a bank where the wild thyme blows, Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows, Quite overcanopied with luscious woodbine, With sweet musk roses and with eglantine. Iceland is full of desolate, hraun (lava) fields, some moss-coated, others bare as an outer planet. The southern sandurs, outwash plains, are dark deserts. But, with all…
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Icelandic birds
The omnipresent common redshank (Tringa totanus), seen and most definitely heard throughout the island. Black-legged kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla), at Arnarstapi. Two chicks are usual. Black guillermot (Cepphus grylle) in Husavik harbor. Common eider (Somateria mollissima) with ducklings. The most common duck seen; many young, but few adult males, who must have been in eclipse. Black-headed…
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On the geese
Back in Brooklyn and controversy: uproar over the gassing of 290 Canada geese in Prospect Park. I believe in a personal, emotional connection to wildness; I think this is profoundly important, but, like most things emotional, it can be carried too far. Into the realm of obsession, of people who think they are the caretakers…
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Whimbrels
My sweetheart and I are back from a magnificent, spectacular, ten day trip around Iceland with a group from the American Littoral Society. Posts about the trip begin here, randomly, at Day Two: these pictures are from Gardar (my apologies to Icelanders for my being too hot and humid to try to find the eth…
Backyard and Beyond 