Fieldnotes
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Trees for Tuesday
I like the way this tuliptree bifurcates and bifurcates again. Stripped of their greenery, the deciduous trees are especially beautifully revealed in winter.
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Mammal Monday
The signs of raccoons are everywhere in Green-Wood, particularly at the base of trees where they leave their poop piles. They sometimes also leave an impression…. We were surprised to spot this one sleeping in the rough on a chilly day. You’d think it would be snug in some tree hole somewhere waiting for the…
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Festive Seasonal Things
If you must buy gifts, consider books, actual books, including the ones I’ve written about lately. What have you been reading? (Comments are open below…) Here’s one more:Mark Frith’s graphite drawings of ancient English oaks, a majestic crew of survivors depicted in the winter of their dishabille. UChicago Press is distributing the book in the…
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Slicing Up the Sky
On a clear day, we can see New Jersey. Straight across is Newark, over New York Bay and Bayonne and Newark Bay. Newark International is there too. Glancing northwards, as above, the twin cities of Jersey City and Manhattan finger the sky. This particularly clear morning was all sliced by condensation trails, better known as…
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Spider Year
It’s the one year anniversary, more or less, of the spider who stayed out in the cold. This big Araneus diadematus orb-weaver had her web(s) outside one of our windows for three months last fall.We only saw her eating once in that time. All B&B spider adventures can be seen here. The current indoor spider…
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Bat Outta Green-Wood
About three weeks ago, I was surprised by a bat in Green-Wood batting around in the early afternoon. It zipped about in a clearing for a moment or three. It was an Eastern Red (Lasiurus borealis). Too bad I was in the bat’s shadow. Just heard about a more recent sighting: warm days can bring…
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Raptor Wednesday
This was quite a drama. Several Blue Jays chasing a Sharp-shinned Hawk from tree to tree in Green-Wood. The hawk couldn’t escape the persecution.There was no perch free from the jays.The noise, of course, was terrific. There’s nothing like Blue Jays for alarums and excursions of the vocal kind. The hawk eventually moved on. It’s…
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Tufted
When last we saw a Tufted Titmouse on this blog, it was eating a dead Winter Wren. That was surprising. But here we’re back to a more regular diet, of seeds and nuts in winter; this bird briefly emerged from a thick conglomeration of shrubbery with something edible in bill.There were three in the thicket,…
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Revealed by The Fall
One day this summer I saw and heard several Baltimore Orioles around this linden. It was so thickly leafed I couldn’t see a nest, but it was pretty clear there was one in there.Woven from grasses and human garbage, suspended like a flapper’s purse. These things always surprise me because they seem so improbable as…
Backyard and Beyond 