(American Goldfinch near a thistle-packed feeder.)

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A window of bark has fallen off this European Beech/Fagus sylvatica, revealing the trail of beetles. These are so irregular I think they’re woodpecker trying to get in rather than beetles trying to get out. These are, I think, exit holes. But look closer: A fine Lion’s-mane/Hericium erinaceus mushroom.

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In roughly age/plumage order, younger to older. Incidentally, you don’t need a weatherperson to tell you which way the wind is blowing if you have gulls around.

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Common Drone Fly on Hoop Daffodil. Slurping up pollen from an anther. The flower’s stigma can be seen between the fly’s legs. Close-up of fly/pollen interface. (Common Drone is something of a bee-mimic.) A real bee, albeit a farm animal. Honey Bee on another Hoop daffy. Stigma reaching out further than the anthers. She’s packed…

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Two Coopers Hawks, one with a pigeon. The bird with the prey brought it down to the solar panels and feasted for an hour. The feasting bird can just be glimpsed through the parapet fire-escape cut. There was a third accipiter in the air (to the left) in the background while this was going on.…

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The False Milkweed Bug is so named because it once confused with the Small Milkweed Bug/Lygaeus kalmii, but it turned out to not feed on Milkweeds. False Sunflowers/Heliopsis helianthoides are their food of choice. Saw several a week ago at Brooklyn Bridge Park where False Sunflowers are planted, but… what are they feeding on this…

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Spring’s onslaught means I’m inevitably behind in these posts. These Trembling Aspen/Populus tremuloides catkins were popping a week ago and… …being dropped from above. Black-capped Chickadees and Tufted Titmouses were eating them (and/or insects within?).

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Same bird; photos taken over a minute and a half.

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(As always, clicking a photograph here will enlarge it.)

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