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Green Heron
The squad of geese attracted my attention. But then the young Green Heron (Butorides virescens) stood out amidst all that gooseflesh.These juvenile herons are heavily streaked in the neck. The “green” of the name isn’t so helpful (ditto “Green-backed,” the old common name for them). They have nested in Brooklyn in recent years. I haven’t heard or…
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Perception
This is a detail of a volcanic rock I picked up in Iceland a few years ago. Do you see what I see? The chocolate brown portions look like they are above the darker blue-black portions. They look like hills. But they’re actually the subsurface part of the rock, the pits. Twice now I’ve experienced…
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View From The Moraine
A green lacewing (Chrysopidae) paused briefly on the window recently.
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Lepidoptera Lowdown
A veritable blizzard of Lepidoptera over a patch of ground-loving Buddleja last week. Lots of skippers skipping. This is a male Sachem (Atalopedes campestris), I think. Several sulphurs ever so briefly alighting. This is purported to be a Clouded Sulphur (Colias philodice)… probably: Orange and Clouded can mix it up genetically, so these are hard to…
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Gnatty
The other evening I walked from Sunset Park to Grand Army Plaza, the last half mile through Prospect Park’s Long Meadow, which was surprisingly empty of the usual clutter of bipeds and canines. As I entered the park at 9th Street, past Layette and groom, I saw the horse-chestnuts and buckeyes anticipating conker-fall, and a…
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For Want of a Tail
A female Common Yellowthroat warbler (Geothlypis trichas) absent all her tail feathers. A small bird made even smaller. She may have lost them all at molt, although that’s usually a progression not a sudden loss. Or maybe a cat got her? Whatever the case, she was doing fantastic work grabbing larvae and adult bugs, even…
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You’ve Been Warned
This is a kousa dogwood of some variety, multi-trunked with interesting mottled bark. They say the fruit is edible. I tried one once. Meh. It was very woodsy.For some mammals, though, that’s not an issue. Raccoon scat, if I’m not mistaken.
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Beewings
One the Megachile leaf-cutter bees. A nice look at the bee’s fore and hind wings. Hymenoptera, the “membrane-winged” insects (bees, wasps, and ants) and have four wings. Dragonflies and butterflies would surely agree with the Hymenoptera that four wings are the best, but flies probably wouldn’t. Flies (and mosquitoes) are in the order Diptera (“two-winged”):…
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Backyard and Beyond 