Fieldnotes
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Colors of the Season
Blackgum.Sweetgum on a cloudy day. (At least three different trees.)Sweetgum, with late afternoon sun.A subtle meadow for the finish.
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Last Insects?
It’s definitely autumn. Yet there are lingerers in the freakish-now-normal mildness. On Wednesday, for instance, I was quite surprised to see a Monarch Butterfly vibrating by on my lunchtime walk in Green-Wood. At first I thought it was a leaf, as one would this time of year. Further exploration also turned up a skipper in…
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Hokumpokes, or Scolopax minor
It’s that time of year again. The shady, leafy understory is potentially loaded with timberdoodles, hokumpokes, bog suckers, worm sabers…. Two may be found hunkered down in the picture above.They do have a lot of names, testifying to their hold on the imagination. One thing’s for certain: American Woodcocks generally see you before you see…
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Raptor Wednesday
It was a crazy day. Raptors filled the air. An exaggeration, yes, but not by much. At one moment, there nine different raptors overhead, mostly Buteos and Accipiters. I’ve never seen so much activity above Brooklyn before. One of the birds was this juvenile Northern Harrier. The long tail, angled wings, buffy red breast, and…
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Oaks
I assume you’re all voting tomorrow. Hopefully you’ll take friends and relatives along with you…
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Tanka
Crabapple blossoms, What do you think you’re doing, Out in November?Spring is irrepressible, A life-blooming metaphor.
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Flickering
Northern Flicker, yellow-shafted edition of the east. They have mostly passed through in migration by now, but a couple of weeks ago, the city was full of them.This Colaptes auratus male — females lack the black mustache marks — excreted while perched up here. Most of these birds are pretty skittish, bolting quickly at the…
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Return of the King
I almost walked into this Golden-crowned Kinglet. So I just stood there and took photographs as it foraged around me, sometimes near and sometimes far. That’s my boot.Green-Wood was still flush with these yesterday, and now more Ruby-cronwend are around as well. I’ve never seen so many kinglets!
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Mushroom Monday
To everything there is a season, and these mushrooms were on the way to deliquescing into ooze. Ants in the first picture. In the second, the white rice-looking things are alive. They are some kind of springtails, possibly of the genus Ceratophysella, and are scavenging on the rich fruit of these fruiting bodies. As always,…
Backyard and Beyond 