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Sturnus vulgaris
It’s damned invasives for the beginning of the week here at B & B. Starlings.
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Passer
House Sparrows love these stop light support structures. Love them! There’s often a pair nesting in each end. The male is keeping a very sharp eye on me. A species hardly ever noticed. This is another male near the nest shown above. Here is another: They’re awful sociable.
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Eristalis tenax
An early flying Common Drone Fly (Eristalis tenax). An introduced species. A bee mimic. Their flight season is long, from mid-March to mid-November, but this was the only one seen this day a week ago. *** Spring’s solace is dependent upon the winter, the bright awakening from cold and dormancy, the “green fuse” lit amidst…
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Cover Art
Yesterday’s witches’ broom sent me by memory to M. M. Graff’s Tree Trails in Central Park, published in 1970 by the Greensward Foundation. Possibly the first place where I first read about them… maybe in the late 1990s? The Foundation was a precursor to the Central Park Conservancy, back in the bad old days of…
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Witches’ Broom
A hackberry tree, Celtis occidentalis. Notice the clumpiness in the canopy? A slightly closer view of one fo the clumps. (They were all out of hand’s reach.) This is witches’ broom, a gall-like growth of branches sprouting in multiples. Hackberry is particularly susceptible. In this case, it seems to be caused by a combination of…
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Leaves of Invertebrates
American Robin in the leaves. Because that’s where the good stuff is. Now, if this bird could turn over logs: *** I can’t stomach watching the Orange Troll in action, but I forced myself to look at his sniffly Gollum-in-a-fright-wig performance last night. What a squandered opportunity, but who expected more after three years of…
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Raptor Wednesday
Cooper’s Hawk near the bird feeders. But, as you can see from that bulging crop, already full. Juvenile. As this bird ages, the chest will transform into russet bars. The eyes get oranger and redder with age, too. The bird was perched at eye-level about 20 feet off a path. After someone walked by, without…
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Spiders
These small wolf spiders have been in every layer of leaves I’ve looked at closely in Green-Wood for a couple of weeks now. Not grass, leaves, which give them so much cover. So many in the Dell Water I was afraid I’d step on them. They are runners and jumpers. A different species, and found…
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Weekend Birds
Two pairs of Wood Ducks on the Lullwater. Male Belted Kingfisher above them. Have there been Kingfishers in both Green-Wood and Prospect all winter? When the light hits a Common (ha!) Grackle just right, look out! White-breasted Nuthatch. Pied-bill Grebe. Some Red-winged Blackbirds are back, and, more importantly, they are making noise. Mallard and Ring-necked…
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Slug in the Greens
In the Japanese turnip greens, purchased in Brooklyn but sourced in Lancaster PA. Perhaps one of the threeband slugs of the genus Amibigolimax. Sautéed the greens after a good washing, with some lettuce, garlic, and hot pepper flakes. The turnips themselves, which are quite small, were peeled and chopped up for a bean salad.
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Backyard and Beyond 