The female House Sparrow foraged along the edge of the Sylvan Water. Looks like she got a newly emergent damselfly. She took a look at the big Snapping Turtle and vice-versa. There are at least four Common Snappers in Green-Wood’s largest water body. This one is third-largest, the shell being about 18″ long. The creature’s…

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Not directly relevant, but I found this article on global shipping’s monstrosity fascinating.

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This, on species solidarity, and the nature of the word “nature,” could be longer…

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Well, energy makes the world go ’round. The transmutation of duckling into hawk… this mature Red-tailed Hawk made two passes over the edge of the Sylvan Water recently, to the accompaniment of loud duck squawking. The second pass was successful. This was the other Red-tailed that showed up soon afterwards. No duckling on the menu…

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Not an atypical look at a Brown Trasher. Luckily, this bird was showing itself nicely just a few moments before. And since I had to backtrack, I came upon two of them in the same spot, one with what certainly looked like nesting material in bill. Wood Thrushes are out and about, too. Ovenbird. The…

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A front-end loader stopped so this one could cross the road. Very fresh. Two more at another nest site.

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This is the work Contarinia racemi, a midge that forces these swellings on black cherry racemes. You really have to immerse yourself in the foliage this time of year. There are a lot of these out there. So far I’ve found some 9 species of gall mites; 20 species of gall midges, and 33 species…

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For World Migratory Bird Day.

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The enormous flowers of big leaf magnolia smell… extraordinarily good. (This is evidently a quick way of telling Magnolia macrophylla from the similar large-flowered Magnolia tripetala, which stinks.) I smelled a very refreshing citrus, a nostalgic cola, and summertime. And I smelled it yards and yards away.

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