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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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Moon Snails
So, it seems that the Shark Eyes and Moon Snails are two different species. This is the Northern Moon Snail, Euspira heros. Unfortunately, I don’t have an example of Neverita duplicata, the Shark Eye, since getting any of these intact on the beach is hard. The Shark Eye “can easily be distinguished [from the Northern…
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TV
This Turkey Vulture turned and came right over our heads. One of us was lying down on the ground to get a picture of some lichen on the bottom of a tombstone, so I definitely think it was wondering if we were were ready to meet our de-constructor. I lightened and cropped this image so…
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Skates
A skate egg case. From a Little Skate, Leucoraja erinacea, according to iNaturalist. Found at Jones Beach recently. The species is under assault from the fishing industry, a victim of bait-hunters (for lobstering) and by-catch. Same day, same beach. This is a skate’s tail. Folks on iNaturalist have identified this as belonging to the Rough…
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