Yellow Buckeye (Aesculus flava). This may be the first one I’ve ever seen sprouting. Horse-chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum). Looks delicious, doesn’t it? But don’t eat ’em, they’re toxic. Don’t confuse them with the sweet chestnut, e.g. marrons glacés.  The Horse-chestnut is a non-native tree planted everywhere as an ornamental. These big seeds are the originals used…

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House Finch male in an exotic Sweetgum. Purple Finch female in the White Ash samaras. She has to bill-worry the seed out of the wing. Flatbread and Starling. And House Sparrows. The obscure red belly of a Red-bellied Woodpecker. Yellow-rumped Warblers with prey. It’s the season of periodic flocks of Robins. A hollow in this…

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Oak Rough Bulletgall, made by the wasp Disholcaspis quercusmamma on Swamp White Oak (Quercus bicolor; although this tree is actually a Swamp White cross with another oak species, as engineered by Cornell U.) That’s the critter’s exit hole. And an entrance hole for other critters. I watched this ant, identified on iNaturalist as a subgenus Myrmentoma…

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With the recent influx of Tufted Titmice, including on my block, I thought to myself, so where are the Black-capped Chickadees? Well… Saw a few on Governor’s Island recently. And in Green-Wood. I have a new Medium piece up, on discovering Balzac, nought, however, about natural history.

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And the nuthatch-blue of the lower bill.

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A couple of Northern Italian Wall Lizards from November 7th, when it got into the mid 70s F. These rest of these pictures are from earlier this fall: This one lost a good bit of tail somewhere along the way. This one was keeping an eye on me and the two American Kestrels atop the…

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Nuthatches are noisy foragers to begin with, but they turn it on it up to 11 when they’re on the alert. I’ve found some spectacular predators lurking in the canopies (Great Horned Owl, Long-eared Owl…) because of the continuous alarm calls of White- and Red-breasted Nutters. Most recently, I heard the call and looked fruitlessly…

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Temperatures plunged Sunday night. This morning it is supposed to be just above freezing when this is published at 7 a.m. EST. The long, lingering autumn is shutting down. These dandelion pictures are from Saturday. At least three species of flies are hard at work here. All the big ones are Margined Calligrapher flies, regulars…

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That’s the same squirrel above, giving me the eye throughout. Here’s another. What they really should be worried about isn’t me: Here’s a case where the squirrel has two. (Actually, I’m not sure if these are acorns, they look too round. Could be pears.) This week on Medium I delve into natural and unnatural histories.

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All through October I wondered when I’ll see the first Autumn Meadowhawk (Sympetrum vicinum), a very late-season dragonfly. October 29th, as it turned out. (The only other species of Odonata generally seen this time of year is the migratory Common Green Darner.) Another day, I went looking for a mating pair and they found me.…

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