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Happy Thanksgiving!
Next year, we’ll get back to partying and feasting with a festive crowd. This year, we won’t help the virus spread.
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Which Plants?
“A small percentage of plant genera support the majority of Lepidoptera” across the U.S. This new study on keystone species shows that “a small percentage of the plant lineages within a region support larval development in the vast majority of resident Lepidoptera.” “The top 5 genera were Quercus (‘Oaks’), Salix (‘Willows’), Prunus (‘Cherries, Plums, Peaches,…
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Pandemic Notes
Back in April, we noticed the long white trucks parked down at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal. I guessed they were extra refrigerator trucks to be used as temporary morgues for the first surge of COVID-19 after similar trucks were reported at local hospitals. That proved to be correct, unfortunately. The trucks have been there…
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Stay Tuned
We’re having technically difficulties here at the ol’ blog factory. I think I’ve ran out of mega, or is it giga-, bytes. Again. Meaning I can’t add pictures. But, have no fear, there’s a vast backcatalog to peruse. Index to the right.
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Late Pollination
There is very little pollination real estate available out there now. It being past middle November and all. This dandelion flower, the only blooming flower visible, was crowded with two Margined Calligrapher flies and a Common Drone Fly the other day. *** It seems as if capitalism no longer needs democracy. China’s ample proof of…
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Flocking Fall Birds
Red-winged Blackbirds. Dark-eyed Juncos. Cedar Waxwings. American Goldfinches. Ok, these are mostly solo shots, but each of these birds was part of a flock…. This male Red-wing, however, was on the todd.
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Piranga ludoviciana
A Western Tanager has been in town for almost a week. I got to see him yesterday morning. Even more exciting, the bird called before coming out into the open! Not a call I know in these parts. The bird has been faithfully returning to these sapsucker holes in a yew. He’s picking up insects…
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Sourwood
Oxydendrum arboreum: the leaves are sour, hence the alternative name sorrel tree; a nice honey is made from the flowers, they say. A tree of the southeast, presumably making its way north. This one an arboretum specimen: you knew Green-Wood was also a ranked arboretum, didn’t you? *** Yet another primer on how important masking…
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Raptor Wednesday
Red-tailed Hawks are commonly seen here in Brooklyn. It’s notable when I don’t see one on a walk in Green-Wood. They not even uncommon sights from the apartment window. A couple of weeks ago, on a very windy morning, I watched four of them simultaneously riding the wind. But this is something different. All these…
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Solar Powered
A 73-degree November day early this month kept the lizards slithery. Have we seen the last of them until the spring? I saw my first years ago in a Queens cemetery where Harry Houdini is supposedly buried. (Well, he got out of a lot of things, right?) Podarcis siculus. iNaturalist’s lizard crew marks them as…
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Backyard and Beyond 