Fieldnotes
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Of Wings and Stigmata
Found the remains of a dragonfly on a Brooklyn sidewalk recently. Possibly a Common Green Darner, one of our most common species. One of the hind wings was still in pretty good shape.Pretty good, but at 40X showing some wear and tear. These two shots are hand-held through the microscope, so not as great as…
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Mammal Monday
Yes, it was hot this weekend. A little house-crazy, I ventured into Green-Wood early Saturday morning. My shirt was plastered to me in no time, and this in the shade before 9 a.m. But everybody’s got to eat. In my case, I need the sustenance of life, like for instance spotting this munching squirrel. And…
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Mind Your Bees Wings
I rarely get a chance to illustrate the four-wingedness of Hymenoptera. The pair of wings on each side of the thorax mesh together in flight, making them look like one wing per side. This Eastern Carpenter Bee (Xylocopa virginica) is the biggest local bee species. And bigger makes things easier to see. One wing set…
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American Dagger
There is so much going on “in” an oak tree. The biologist E.O. Wilson has written that you could spend a lifetime voyaging like Magellan around a single tree, discovering all the interrelated life associated with it. Quercus is definitely one genus where this applies very well. This British study found 284 insects associated with…
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The Bee’s Tongue
Never mind the knees, how about those tongues? Check out the tongue between the down-turned antennae. (Those antennae, by the way, are hugely important sensory organs: they can touch, taste, and smell.) There are short-tongued and long-tongued bee species.This leaf-cutter bee seems to be tasting this stem.This one explored numerous leaf edges. The tip of…
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Raptor Wednesday
Look, up in the sky! It’s a… oh, let’s cut to the chase, comix book fans. It is a mature Bald Eagle. A pair have been nesting in the area for a couple of years now. (Remember, in 1974 there were no breeding pairs in New York State AT ALL. In 2017, there were 323…
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Another Snout
This makes four American Snouts, Libytheana carinenta, I’ve seen so far this year in Brooklyn. That’s four times as many as I’ve ever seen. This one, unfortunately, was dead on the sidewalk.
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More Exuviae
An emergent damselfly next to the husk of its former, aquatic life stage. When they first emerge as their adult, flying form, they don’t have much color. Their wings unfurl and harden off, like their new exoskeleton. They can’t fly immediately.When they can fly, they will sometimes take shelter in trees, bushes, etc., to finish…
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Hyphantria cunea
The Fall Webworm caterpillars are out in force this year. Bush Terminal.Transmitter Park. (Droppings on the leaf to the right.)Down the street. Yesterday was Henry THoreau’s 202 birthday. I’ve written quite a bit about him here over the years. He remains a vital beacon in this vicious era.
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Tilt-a-nest
Northern Mockingbird nesting. A late brood or a second one? The angle here, by the way, is accurately represented. I wonder if they built it this way or it somehow shifted once they got it going. If you think these sweetgum pods look odd, you’d be right. This is a different species from our native…
Backyard and Beyond 