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Late Insecta
Not a single bee, wasp, or butterfly spotted yesterday in Green-Wood during lunch. There was a suggestion or two of fly, and at least one spider. The first real day of winter, then, bug-wise. Last weekend, though, these stragglers were spotted: Differential Grasshopper, a big one. One of the confusing Syrphid flies. Clouded Sulphur. Vinegar…
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Old Hickory
This was actually yellower to my eyes than this orange-ish reproduction via the camera, but either way it sure jumped out at me — from outside the cemetery, actually. Carya species native here include mockernut, bitternut, pignut, and shagbark, but of course Green-Wood is an arboretum originally planted with specimen trees. I think this might…
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Raptor Wednesday
A yew: evergreen, dense, low to the ground. Accipiters in Green-Wood love these trees the year-around. A bird I could not identify was making a very odd noise at the top of one of these yews recently. This is often a sign of warning or distress. I saw a squirrel shock-still under the neighboring tree,…
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It’s That Time of Year Again
Generally, American Woodcock see you before you see them. And then they bolt. They are so well-blended in with the leaf litter that their noisy take-offs, sometimes from quite close by, are very startling. Flushed four on Saturday, three on Sunday. Two of Sunday’s, pictured here, took shelter under beechwood, all crowded with shadow, leaves,…
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Consider, if you will, the lobster
Andrew Selkirk, the inspiration for DeFoe’s Robinson Crusoe, ate a lot of crawfish and spiny lobsters while marooned in the Juan Fernandez Islands. When he returned to Scotland, he took up lobstering. This is the kind of thing you learn in Richard J. King’s Lobster. This book is one of the Animal Series from Reaktion…
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Revenants
The Cumaean Sibyl spoke in oak leaves, which, when scattered by the wind, tended to result in the most ambiguous prophesies. In John Dryden’s bouncing-ball translation (Aeneid 6, 126-129), she says to Aeneas: The gates of hell are open night and day; Smooth the descent, and easy is the way: But to return, and view…
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Recent Birds
Palm Warblers are most commonly on the ground, but this one has snagged something insect-y on a tree limb. Kinglets to the right of me, kinglets to the left. The Ruby-crowned rarely shows his flaring ruby crown, but I guess he was put out by the other RCKs here. No “confusing fall warbler” garb for…
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Spiders!
I don’t think they’re scary, but my goodness, this one sure was big. Common House? One of the long-jawed orbweavers? Couldn’t see this with the naked eye, but in the camera, wow! Basilica Orbweaver. Characteristically makes vertical hangings of its egg cases. There were a bunch of these Basilicas in these bushes. What a revelation!…
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Backyard and Beyond 