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Mud Waves
Corrugated tidal flats, a rippled landscape. Some water is still trapped yards from the lowtide front. Somebody’s in there. These sandy spaghetti-like strands are casings, thrown out of wormholes in the sand. While we’re on the subject of worms, these are another kind of worm that build tunnels on shells (in this case a big…
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Raptor Wednesday
This glorious smokestack is the throne of Peregrines. I’ve seen them up here often during the past couple of winters. Not so much during spring and summer, however, when, presumably, breeding keeps them busy. I can see this ‘stack from the home front, but these shots are from much closer, the playground next to Sunset…
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Shore Dinner
I watched as this Herring Gull dropped this Hardshell Clam (quahog) one two three times before the shell broke apart. The meaty deliciousness within went down the hatch pretty quickly. Note the flecks in the eye. The shelly remains. Nearby was this half-eaten fish. Possibly Atlantic Menhaden. When I returned about 45 minutes later, the…
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Holly Month
These two tads, both at the base of the same massive beech, seem to have survived the demonic weed-whackers. They are located about 200 feet in a straight line from this very spectacular American holly (Ilex opaca). This damage may come from the larvae of a fly in the Phytomyza genus. The big boy pictured…
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Sunday Thoughts
Last week I touched on Carl Safina essay about our moral obligation to the natural world. Since reading that piece, I’ve read Jedediah Purdy’s This Land is Our Land. In it, I find him citing Montaigne, who argued, in Purdy’s words, “that it was possible for a kind of humane and egalitarian affection to flow…
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Viny Attachments
Red tendrils are hairy, so scary. Well, perhaps not as memorable as “leaves of three, leave it be” as a mnemonic for identifying poison ivy, but there you go. The climbing form of Toxicodendron radicans loves a good tree. *** The USDA’s animal-killing division, named Wildlife Services in a touch of the Orwellian, wants to…
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It was a dry and rustling day
I let my ears do the walking. Rowdy Blue Jays lead me to a Cooper’s Hawk moving from branch to branch within the thick confines of a yew. The tapping of Downy Woodpeckers and the clucking of Red-bellied Woodpeckers rang through the leaf-stirring wind. A dry susurration, a crinkly crunch. (The annual up-to-the-calves-in-leaves self-portrait.)
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Galls Again
Yes, it’s time for a Fall Gall edition. These are the structures created by the tree, in this case, in response to insects (in these cases) who lay their eggs on the tree. This one is, I think, a Hedgehog Gall. Not sure on this species. Nor this. This one was much smaller and looked…
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Raptor Wednesday
A pair of Red-tailed Hawks, half of the foursome then in the sky over Green-Wood. The feet-down flying thing is romance. Another day, another Red-tailed. Yet another day, another Red-tailed….It is actually the day without a Red-tailed sighting is worth noting. Not easy to see, but look at that profile: this one has a very…
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Backyard and Beyond 