Fieldnotes
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In the woods
Mayapples, Podophyllum peltatum, not yet in bloom, in Prospect Park. “He loved the woods for their freshness, their sublime solitudes, their vastness, and the impress they everywhere bore of the divine hand of their Creator. He seldom moved through them without pausing to dwell on some peculiar beauty that gave him pleasure […]” James Fenimore…
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Field Notes: JBWR
There were so many tree swallows out at Jamaica Bay even I could get good shoots without a real telephoto. Birds seen: DC cormorant, Great egret, Snowy egret, Little blue heron, Tricolored heron, Glossy Ibis, Mute swan, Brant, Canada goose, American black duck, Gadwell, mallard, Northern shoveller, Greater scaup, Bufflehead, Ruddy duck, red-breasted merganser, Osprey,…
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Field Trip: Tiny flowers
A chickweed, methinks. Some kind of violet? Both of these were found at the Lily Pond, in town. The ground was squishy: the water table all over the island was high. Which leads me to this: A sphagnum?
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Natural Object: Whelk Egg Case
You may recognize this if you live on the east coast of the U.S. south of Cape Cod: it’s a whelk egg string. Here in the NYC region, we have two types of big whelks, the channeled and the knobbed. The knobbed is the state shell of New Jersey and Georgia, should you ever be…
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Field Notes: First Damselflies
We saw our first damselflies Sunday at the Valley Water in Green-Wood. The very first one we noticed, alas, was dead. All four wings can be seen clearly here. Mid-April is early for damselflies in these parts (and it was a rather cool day). Most species emerge later in the year, mid-May and after. The…
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Field Notes: Blooming Brooklyn
A walk around Brooklyn yesterday found these colors: Cherry in Green-Wood. Columbine in Prospect. Eastern redbud in Clinton Hill. Royal Paulownia in Clinton Hill.
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Evening Chorus
A week ago on Nantucket at twilight I wandered down past the MSPCA’s driveway, which is also a road, of sorts. It’s unpaved, and runs through a bit of piney woods past someone’s great-tracks-of-land spread, complete with big red barn and, um, llamas. At one point, you come across an emphatic stone marker noting that…
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Field Trip: Beetles!
Found this handsome creature on the beach on Nantucket, where it was not doing well with the shifting, treacherous, sisyphean sands. The good folks at Bug Guide identified it for me as Tricrania sanguinipennis. Like the oil beetles we found at Jamaica Bay, these parasitize ground nesting bees. Euphoria inda, the bumble flower scarab, found…
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Meanwhile, back in Brooklyn
My dispatches about my Nantucket field trip will continue for several days, but, since I’m back in Brooklyn, I thought I would note the gorgeousness of spring right here, right now. White blossoms (Callery pear, apple, etc.) are falling like sprinkles of snow. The cherry trees are in perfect form. I will try to make…
Backyard and Beyond 