Fieldnotes
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Islenska Fugla
Here’s a list of the birds of Iceland. I am especially looking forward to seeing haforn, falki, and, of couse, one of my favorites, hrafn.
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Eastern Cottontail
The mammal’s eye. Some bird seed encouraged this one to get closer. Three others grazed the yard. That’s a rabbit-blood-bloated tick on the ear there. The flash gave it a red-eye effect like a wild sunset. As if it was guarding the Cave of Caerbannog. “Oh, it’s just a harmless little ‘bunny’ isn’t it?”
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Banding Osprey
Last week I had the good fortune to attend an osprey (Pandion haliaetus) banding on Nantucket island with people from the Maria Mitchell Association. There were three youngsters in this nest, one down from the original four hatched earlier. Unfortunately, it has not been a good season for nesting osprey on the island; fish, the…
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Do you roll your own?
So do some insects. There are what seem to be eggs inside of these.
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Hymenoptera
It’s National Pollinator Week. The membrane-winged insects, order Hymenoptera, encompass the bees, wasps, and ants (the queens and males of the ants have wings but shed them after mating). Unlike the flies, and there a number of flies who mimic bees, hymenoptera have four wings that merge together with a sort of natural velcro, so…
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Paper Wasp
A paper wasp of the genus Polistes builds her nest. At first, I assumed this was a yellowjacket, also a member of the vespid wasp family, but further research reveals that the yellowjackets build underground nests. There is a European paper wasp, P. diminula, now found in North America, as well as numerous native species.…
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Mud snail
A marine mud snail, found along the littoral of the city in great bunches. Dead Horse Bay has thickets of them. This one was from Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge; the beach there is normally closed but we went down to the water with a couple of the cutest rangers ever seen in a national park,…
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Blue Jays
Cyanocitta cristata, the blue jay, one of the most common, most colorful, most aggressive, and loudest birds found east of the Rockies. And, evidently, they’ll eat just about anything. This one is going for the cat kibble. It doesn’t like me lounging on the porch, but it sneaks in anyway. This one, meanwhile, has cached…
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In the Valley Water
The Valley Water is one of four water bodies in Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery. It is the closest to the 5th Avenue entrance and a regular stop on our excursions through the place. We stopped by over this last weekend. The joint was jumping: bull frogs, green frogs, and a smaller species, with plenty of big…
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More snails
I found this little specimen in North Andover, MA. I think it’s Oxyloma retusum, the blunt ambersnail. This is a fairly similar animal, but I’m not sure it’s the same species since the shell is not glossy or amber. What do you think? I found this one on Nantucket, MA. Is that snail turd there?…
Backyard and Beyond 