The cutting down of this mature Sycamore Maple resulted in a plethora of sap, which in turn feeds a slime flux of incredible colors. This is a fungus, or rather several fungi, including yeasts, and probably some bacterias. (Deer Vomit is the common name for Fusicolla merismoides, which may be a species complex, but there…

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All at once, two high-soaring Buteos… …good ol’ 10-A… …and the nest-keeper.

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Brown-belted in Blueberry. One of the numerous Nomada bees. Dark red with dandelion yellow markings are distinctive looking, but members of this genus are quite hard to identity. There are at least 288 species on the genus in North America north of Mexico. Speaking of things hard to ID. Less than 20% of sawfly larvae…

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While scouting for my first Bugging Out insect walk at Green-Wood Cemetery this year yesterday, I tried to photograph these tiny encased caterpillars dangling from silk lines from a Japanese Larch. When I brought the group by, there weren’t as many visible, and a couple of the attendees spotted them before me. They’re about 5-6mm…

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The first of two flies this female Hooded Warbler caught and ate under a Yew while I watched. The second. Impressive catch. Unlike, say, a larval something like a caterpillar, an adult fly can, well, fly. Behind-the-scenes making-of documentaries of documentaries are popular nowadays. Here’s a look behind the magic of Backyard & Beyond: A…

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If you, like me, have been on tenterhooks (I hope they’re tender) since we last checked in on the Great Horned Owl nest… That’s the parent on the right. (April 23rd from a long way away.) An arrival of another sort. Yesterday, May 6th, was our first day of Chimney Swifts for the year.

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Wowsa! Close-up of the pores in Northern Cinnabar Polypore/Trametes cinnabarina. (This one was already broken off.)

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If you look closely, you can see the eggs underneath the foamy, spongy covering Spongy Moths/Lymantria dispar coat their egg-masses with. These used to be known as Gypsy Moths, but the common name was changed a couple years ago for obvious reasons. They were introduced to the U.S. in 1869 by some dude who thought…

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These are the infernal train yard lights my neighbors complain about. About three blocks away from the vast subway yard, they require blackout curtains to stop the glow. (We face a different direction, thankfully.) This light tower with a male American Kestrel atop it was on a distant part of the yard. Along with the…

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