Fieldnotes
-
The Case Against Honeybees
No other exploited farm worker has gotten the attention Apis mellifera has. Our urge to “save the bees” and “save the pollinators” has concentrated on the photogenic and familiar honeybee. They are, after all, a species with the publicity machinery of industrial farming behind them, and the romance of DIY rooftop farming. But we should…
-
Late Odonata
Dragonfly eating damselfly. Eastern Pondhawk female gobbling up one of the bluets. Familiar Bluet ungobbled. Common Green Darner male. Autumn Meadowhawk female. Autumn Meadowhawk male (probably). As their name suggests, these Sympetrum genus meadowhawks are one of the last species to fly during the Odonata year.
-
Palm Warbler Sunday
They are all over…at least in Green-Wood. And yesterday I saw my first White-throated Sparrows and Dark-eyed Juncos, northern birds that spend the winter here. It’s a transitional time, coming and going, a hinge of seasons, and today suggests it will be very birdy indeed.
-
Lizards!
Two sightings of Northern Italian Fence Lizards in Green-Wood this summer. I first became aware of this introduced species when a picture of an American Kestrel carrying one of the lizards made the rounds of the birding crowd years ago. The lizards seem to have gotten here via the animal slave — oh, sorry, I…
-
American Chestnut
Some earlier writing about American chestnuts in Prospect Park. *** Just in from the science desk: Zebra Finches dream very much like mammals. Like us. The authors extrapolate to song birds in general. They hypothesize that such shared characteristics are a result of our shared early ancestry.
-
Raptor Wednesday
I recently found out that a pair of Cooper’s Hawks nested in Prospect Park this year. That never happens… these Accipiters usually head elsewhere during breeding after hunting in the city during the winter. I did see a pair of American Kestrels chase a Cooper’s into Green-Wood during the summer of ’18, but this year…
-
Chrysalis
September 17th. I noticed this chrysalis hanging by silken threads in the doorway of a mausoleum. I thought it was Eastern Tiger Swallowtail. September 18th. Parenthetical: there was a spider right next door. September 21st. I don’t know what’s going here. Breached by something? October 5th. “For the first time, the wealthiest Americans paid a…
-
Butterfly Reprise
What a year for butterflies! All these were seen in the last two weeks. I’ve now seen 28 species in Kings County, according to iNaturalist. Plus one skipper, oh those bedeviling skippers, only identified to genus level. I meant to post this yesterday, but I screwed up the scheduling. It was 94F on Wednesday and…
-
Nighthawk Wednesday
Not quite Raptor Wednesday, but a good excuse to explore the nighthawks. They are not raptors, but their physical similarity in flight to hawks, specifically falcons, at dusk and dawn gives them their name. Perched, they look nothing like raptors. And perched is where you will find them during the day, if you find them.…
-
Under the Lilac Bush, Again
Remember the Wasp Lilac? Cicada-killer Wasps and a few other wasp species, but mostly Cicada-killers, were sucking the sap from this one bushy specimen in Green-Wood. Well, more than one lilac, actually, since the one nearby was also being suckled at. A month later, I happened to look again, and now it’s the turn of…
Backyard and Beyond 