Fieldnotes
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Hatchin’
To be absolutely honest with you, I could follow the sounds of nuthatches all day long, from tree to tree. You won’t always see them as they scurry about pines and hardwoods searching nooks and crannies, but they pack a lot of voice in their small bodies. What they’re looking for in the crevices of…
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Details
Same patch, same day.Crab spider lurking… Another generation of something arthropod…
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Mammal/Mushroom Combo Monday
A melanistic variation on the ubiquitous Eastern Grey Squirrel, Sciurus carolinensis. These darker ones are said to tolerate colder weather better. Another notion has it that urban environments, with less predators, are also more likely to see greater numbers of both black and white variations of S. carolinensis. Our first example is digging up a…
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One Giant Spreadwing
The largest damselfly in the Northeast is a Southwestern species that has been expanding its range our way for the last century. The Giant Spreadwing Archilestes grandis can be up to 2.4″ long, as big as a medium-sized dragonfly. I spotted two males in the Bronx and had a very hard time getting a usable…
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Meadows
The protected grasslands at Floyd Bennett Field are looking fine in autumn.You can fill your screen with these by clicking on them. *** Much less of a pretty picture: on the rise of illiberal democracy there and here.
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Mushroom Heaven
There was a lot of rain in September. That made the fruiting bodies of fungi very happy. This one was found like this. I don’t suspect Andy Goldsworthy….Deep under a beech. Very hard to reproduce their (fungi are more closely related to animals than plants) purples, at least as seen by my all-too-human eyes. ***…
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Transitions
It’s that time of year. Birds are on the move. Most are passing through NYC, but some are coming for the winter from further north. White-throated Sparrows and Dark-eyed Juncos are back in town. This is their Miami (the bagels are better). On Saturday, they were mixed up with warblers, flycatchers, and others migrating further…
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Three Wasps Walk Into A Bar…
I. Probably Common Thread-waisted Wasp, Ammophila procera, although the whole Ammophila genus sounds confusing for IDing via camera. So let’s enjoy that orange midriff.Members of the genus parasitize caterpillars and sawfly larvae for their young. A big, bold creature, spotted late last week supping the nectar of seaside goldenrod. Have been seeing these for a few…
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Blue Waves
The other day, I counted a hundred Blue Jays (Cyanocitta cristata) streaming past the apartment over ten minutes. The birds were on the move above 5th Avenue. I’ve had similar experiences in the last two weeks: clumps and waves and straggles of jays, heading south. The green places have been full of their strident cries…
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Swift Feather-legged Fly
Trichopoda pennipes, a parasitic fly of uncommon colorfulness. They lay their eggs on true bugs and have been used as biological control agents against squash bugs and the Southern Green Stinkbug, a crop pest with world-wide distribution. The hairy “feather” on the tibiae of hind legs can be seen here: this is a fringe of…
Backyard and Beyond 