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Dipping into Robert Burton’s The Anatomy of Melancholy, which celebrates its inexhaustible 400th year this year, I find in the glossary castril (kestrel) and tassel (tiercel, a male falcon). “[…]he is nobody that in the season hath not a hawk on his fist. […] The Persian kings hawk after butterflies with sparrows made to that…

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The superfamily Ichneumonoidea, the Braconid and Ichneumonid Wasps, are a broad and diverse taxonomic collection of parasitic wasps. All these females are hunting for the anthropoids they parasitize. But, alas, they’re really hard to ID by photograph alone. (For instance, I have 78 iNaturalist observations in this superfamily, but only 14 are identified to species…

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The annual WordPress bill comes due this time of year. Which is why I solicit donations for this blog. It costs about $400 for domain and hosting per annum, so thank you for your past, present, and future support. I recommend Annelien De Dijn’s Freedom: An Unruly History, a look at how freedom and liberty…

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I’ve now seen both male and female Kestrels fly into the Monk Parakeet nest several times over the years. They don’t spend much time there. I’ve never seen them emerging with prey (I’ve never seen a baby parakeet here). There’s evidence that these small falcons use parakeet nests as places to roost overnight in Florida.…

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