Scattered cherry blooms this week on a day of blustery snow.

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Liquidambar acalycina, which iNaturalist calls Chang’s Sweetgum. These are the Burgundy Flush variety, but this has been such a rotten year for foliage. Compared to American Sweetgum, Liquidambar styraciflua, the leaves here are different, but the smaller, longer-horned seedpod is the quickest way to tell them apart.

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The big antenna at 40th St. and 5th Avenue, a long block away from our apartment, hosts these raptors as well as the occasional Red-tailed Hawk and Merlin. Lousy photos because it’s so damn far away, and now that it’s winter the spotting scope is much distorted by the heat pouring out the windows when…

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The contents of a pod. You will note that there are winged seeds here and other bits. These other bits are infertile seeds. This source: “The infertile seeds found in each of the sweet gum’s compound seed capsules are a naturally occurring source of shikimic acid, one of the main ingredients in the manufacture of…

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Sunday is fund day.

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Two different varieties of Common Witch-Hazel (Hamamelis virginiana), the autumn bloomer.

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Photographs taken the same day. There is about a mile distance between these two spots. Is this the same pair? I don’t think so. The pairs both have great fidelity to their territory.

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