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National Moth Week: Polyphemus
A one centimeter-long instar of the Polyphemus Moth on a white oak leaf in Green-Wood. It’ll get bigger…the final instar can be 6cm long (about 2.5″). If this survives all the vicissitudes, it will pupate and return next year as a large moth. Found last winter: I think these are all Polyphemus cocoons. From this…
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Roof Crow
A Fish Crow, identified by its vocalizations, patrolling neighboring roofs. For bugs. Crunchy snacks. I believe the prey here is a Common Green June Beetle. Seemed to already dead up there. Crow was scavenging and found several tidbits. Flashbacks: Two years ago, Laughing Gulls were swarming over a bunch of these same beetles at Bush…
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Tiger Swallowtail
A couple of caterpillars of the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly. When they are in their early stages or instars, they look a bit like bird turds. But when you look closer, your larger-than-average predator brain will note some curiosities. The “eyes” are fake, by the way.(Some caterpillars pretend to be twigs…) As they get older,…
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Midge Monday
It turns out, because you have to turn the leaflets over, that hickory trees are potentially loaded with gall mites. There are several dozen hickory gall midge species in the Caryomyia genus, each forcing the tree to make a little shelter for the mite. Acting on a call from a curator on iNaturalist, I examined…
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Mite-y Cargo
A blue-form female Familiar Bluet, I think. About three blocks from the nearest water body. The edge of this parking lot was weedy– more recently every bit of greenery was removed. But it’s already sprouting back… Anyway, the damselfly turned out to be laden with cargo. These red things are water mites, hitching a ride.…
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Bent Snapper
Medium-sized snapping turtle. By medium-sized, I mean the shell here is bigger than your average dinner plate. About a month ago, I ran into this same turtle in the water. This carapace (top shell) is unique, and rather unusual. I’ve never seen the spines on the far edge pointing upwards on other specimens.
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Birds
Another breeding bird? A pair of Brown Thrashers were hunkered under a few bushes in Green-Wood recently. A big, bold bird that hides its light under a bushel if there ever was one. Seeing this one out in the open was a nice change of pace. Forster’s Tern hunting over the Crescent Water. A bit…
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Breaking
This is the first Ebony Jewelwing I’ve ever seen here in Brooklyn. They can be common elsewhere, but this is now the first record in iNaturalist and Odonata Central for Kings Co. A male. Eating a small fly in this shot. He was patrolling a puddle in the Dell Water, which is mostly drained now…
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Raptor Wednesday
Sometimes far… Sometimes near. The local American Kestrels. Three or four still seen most days.
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Periodic Reminder
Orange antennae are the fastest way to distinguish European Paper Wasps in the field. Polistes dominula are everywhere, constantly prowling around for prey. I see them in the bushes, the taller grasses, the trees. An umbrella paper wasp, they make umbrella-like nests. Our other Polistes wasps are rather dark; indeed, the most common native species…
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Backyard and Beyond 