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Lizard City
Did you know that there are lizards living in New York City? No, I don’t mean captive ones. As their name suggests, these Italian Wall Lizards (Podarcis sicula) originated elsewhere but seem to have adopted to our climate and habitat (NYC and Naples are on the same latitude, you know). Last week, when the temp…
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Sunset Park Elm
I’ve been photographing this big American Elm in Sunset Park for the last year.The long shadows if not the temperature tell of the days drawing nearer. Today’s the first day of the end of daylight savings time, meaning an hour sooner sunset, and we’ve still a month and more to go to the shortest day.…
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City of Roosts
Rebecca Solnit is a writer I’ll follow anywhere. A few years ago, she produced an atlas of San Francisco that just called to my old geographer’s heart. Infinite City was followed by Unfathomable City, in which she teamed up with Rebecca Snedeker for an atlas of New Orleans. Now she and the wonderfully named Joshua…
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Pignut!
Pignut Hickory, Carya glabra. Let this fill your screen…In addition to birds, bugs (warmth-dependent), and the last of asters, we’ll be looking for similar leaf color tomorrow on our tour of Prospect Park.
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Prospect Park Tour
Tree-maven and all-around naturalist Ken Chaya and I are teaming up to lead a nature walk in Prospect Park this Sunday. Ken’s the man who mapped the trees of Central Park and is now helping to census all the plant species in that park. Ken and I will be looking high and low for animal and…
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Douglas Squirrel
David Douglas did get the small, vocal Tamiasciurus douglasii named after him, both ways. We saw one at Ecola State Park and a few more at Hoyt Arboretum in Portland, where this one was photographed well enough to present to you, but mostly we heard them. They let you know whose woods these are… (Looks like…
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Raptor Wednesday
Merlins like to perch and don’t seem to be as jumpy as, say, the Accipiters, who are constantly on the move.This Falco columbarius had just returned to this perch, where I’d earlier seen it, from quite a too-do with several Blue Jays, which were mobbing it in a nearby tree. Green-Wood‘s a good place…
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Douglas-fir
Years ago I visited friends living just north of San Fransisco. My flight was delayed eight hours or so, so I arrived in Oakland at four in the morning, when there wasn’t much to do but watch dawn rise over the continent… After a short, unsuccessful nap, I was dropped off in Muir Woods National…
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Woodcock Season
American Woodcocks (Scolopax minor) are back in town! This one in Green-Wood was pointed out to us by a fellow birder on Saturday; also, a correspondent had one in her back yard in Park Slope the other day. If you were following this blog last year at this time, there were some up-close moments with…
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Some Northwestern Birds
Western Gull, Larus occidentalis. Similar looking to Herring Gull (Larus argentatus), but note that heavier, down-turned bill. (All the Larus gulls seem to be able to interbreed, resulting in hybrids of this and that and making a mockery of the old definition of species.)And speaking of taxonomy: the Western Scrub Jay was divided into two…
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Backyard and Beyond 