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Marmota Monax Update
How many Groundhog/Woodchucks are there in Brooklyn? We saw three the other day.These two were munching near a burrow now completely covered by understory growth. The second pictured here was rather smaller than the first, so perhaps it was a youngster. The third of the day’s Whistlepigs was some distance away.
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Sand Crab
The Atlantic Sand Crab (Emerita talpoida) is also known as the mole crab and the sand flea (confusingly, since there are, in fact, amphipod sand fleas).These streamlined animals are, at any rate, crustaceans. As Sarah Oktay explains from the place I first came across them, they are surf-zone specialists, and pretty important in that harsh…
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Fireflies
You know what I like about this blogging project of mine? The fact that there is always something new to learn. It’s the universe, after all, and I will never ever even begin to contain it.For instance, this is one of the Lampyridae family of beetles, the fireflies, lightning bugs, glowworms. But hold on a…
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Air Bee and Bee
A local bee motel. There was a wasp checking in, to. This is a rather elaborate one, offering several possibilities for wood- and cavity- nesters. (But don’t forget the ground-nesters!) The Xerces Society has some helpful hints on building your own to encourage pollinators. Update and caveats 11/19: these elaborate, crowded situations don’t replicate natural…
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Seaside Dragonlet
This is a female Seaside Dragonlet (Erythrodiplax berenice), spotted recently on Plumb Beach. This is the only American species of dragonfly that breeds in salt water, in this case probably the saltwater marsh tucked behind the beach. To be honest, I couldn’t see any of the handsome orange and black patterning on the abdomen and…
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Sunset Park Osprey
We’re at the limits of my optical abilities here, but it looks like the Ospreys nesting atop a light tower on the parking lot of the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal have had at least one youngster. Note that spotty back; young birds have this scaling of the feathers. Possibly two. One of these birds flew…
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Great Spangled Fritillary
A name that should always be said in a W.C. Fields’ voice.Speyeria cybele.
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Fruiting Bodies
The shapes of these old mushrooms — some kind of bolete? — fascinate. They are split and cracked; some look as if they have been nibbled by somebody; others bored into by something. Age makes character.
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Beebalm
And balm for your Monday.
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Backyard and Beyond 