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In Praise of Geography
Tim and Máiréad Robinson earned a living by making maps. Both passed away in the early wave of COVID last spring. They were in their 80s, but god-damn the eugenicist scum who blithely write off “underlying conditions” as an excuse. (This crowd of filth, the base of a GOP lately heard bleating about how divisive…
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Odds And Bobs
It’s Lichen month at the NYC Ecoflora Challenge on iNaturalist. Not a lichen. A dried-out old mushroom. A fresh, glistening young mushroom. Another new-to-me oak gall wasp: Callirhytis clavula in a white oak. Chickadee landing on practically every old Phylloxera aphid gall on this shagbark hickory. As an arboretum, Green-Wood is stuffed with trees, meaning…
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Evidence
Turkish hazel. Swamp white oak. Yew. Silver birch. Adding these to the Caucasian fir on my list of species tapped into by Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers. Here’s one more, but I haven’t figured out what kind of tree this is. None of the above. *** Republicans who are shocked, shocked, that their words and deeds have consequences…
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Something Something
More explorations underneath trees, looking up this time. This Douglas fir is gnarly with what I suppose are cankers. They’re leaking sap. Used to the resiny stickiness of pines, I note that this sap was quite dry. Anyone know the cause? *** When you lift the klan hood off a Republican, you find a brownshirt.
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Raptor Wednesday
I have been seeing, and hearing about other people seeing, members of the the Red-shouldered League all fall. This is unprecedented. Usually, Red-shouldered Hawks (Buteo lineatus) pass over during migration periods. I’ve never seen them consistently here in Brooklyn through the fall and now winter. This youngster was perched on Monday in Green-Wood. (Does this…
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Underbark
I didn’t get outside on New Year’s Day, but on Sunday I got to poke about a bit. Underneath a large piece of bark, deeply curled so its underside was not touching the ground, I found a whole universe of delights. Isopods, a spider, a centipede, two kinds of beetles, everything small and active, near…
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Journal of the Pandemic Year Just Passed But Hardly Over
The city is littered with used masks. I’ve worn a bandana or mask outside our apartment since March to protect myself, my loved ones, and my neighbors. I’ve also masked as a mark of community and solidarity. Alas, we have fuckers in our very building who don’t share this concern, so we have been forced…
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Backyard and Beyond 