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Mushroom Monday
These long-format (16:9 aspect ratio) images look better on the big screen, so click on them once to expand. Usually I shoot 3:2,the old 35mm film standard; sometimes I crop these down for detail. I’m sure you’ll see some 1:1 images around here soon (sounds just right for a woodchuck portrait).Meanwhile, more stinkhorns! This time…
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The Art of Naming
Last week we muddied the tree of life. This week, the long human attempt to straighten it all out by giving all the pieces names. In The Art of Naming, Michael Ohl explores the history and principles of taxonomic naming. Esoteric? I don’t think so. He dabbles a little in common names, those vernacular names…
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Colors of the Season
Blackgum.Sweetgum on a cloudy day. (At least three different trees.)Sweetgum, with late afternoon sun.A subtle meadow for the finish.
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Last Insects?
It’s definitely autumn. Yet there are lingerers in the freakish-now-normal mildness. On Wednesday, for instance, I was quite surprised to see a Monarch Butterfly vibrating by on my lunchtime walk in Green-Wood. At first I thought it was a leaf, as one would this time of year. Further exploration also turned up a skipper in…
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Hokumpokes, or Scolopax minor
It’s that time of year again. The shady, leafy understory is potentially loaded with timberdoodles, hokumpokes, bog suckers, worm sabers…. Two may be found hunkered down in the picture above.They do have a lot of names, testifying to their hold on the imagination. One thing’s for certain: American Woodcocks generally see you before you see…
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Raptor Wednesday
It was a crazy day. Raptors filled the air. An exaggeration, yes, but not by much. At one moment, there nine different raptors overhead, mostly Buteos and Accipiters. I’ve never seen so much activity above Brooklyn before. One of the birds was this juvenile Northern Harrier. The long tail, angled wings, buffy red breast, and…
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The Color of Elections
“Freedom is in peril. Defend it will all your might.”
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Oaks
I assume you’re all voting tomorrow. Hopefully you’ll take friends and relatives along with you…
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Tanka
Crabapple blossoms, What do you think you’re doing, Out in November?Spring is irrepressible, A life-blooming metaphor.
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The Tangled Tree
Add some DNA from viruses, bacteria, chimpanzees, and, for some of us, Neanderthals, and pretty soon— well, ok, after a couple billion years — you have human beings. Let’s stress that plural for a second: we really are beings, our bodies covered inside and out with microbes. Some studies say we’re one-to-one bacterial to human…
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Backyard and Beyond 