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Sweet Spot Soured
Neither too close nor too far from the sun, Earth has been described as a “Goldilocks planet” because it’s just right. The term is also used for similar planets, those of the over 2000 exoplanets now discovered that are situated just right, too. More formally, planets in sweet spot orbits are in the “circumstellar habitable…
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It’s No 2015
Last winter, the Bald Eagles were thick in the air up the Hudson at Croton Point. This winter, which has been absurdly mild, not so much. The rivers aren’t frozen further north, so there’s no reason for these fish-eaters to pile up further south. We did see 1-3 adult Baldies yesterday over a span of…
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One Tough Naturehood
At 4th Avenue and 38th Street, where the D train curves towards Coney and emerges down below for two-cars length of light, this enormous sign has lately appeared. Subway cut-friendly Ailanthus, Paulownia, and Norway Maple: my neighborhood has trees, but let’s be real, some trees do not a forest make. It’s definitely got “naturehood,” though…
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Balcony Perch
I saw a pair of Pigeons, but my companion saw something else in their general vicinity. We were down below the rise of the Heights in Brooklyn Bridge Park, looking up to where the swells live. The hawk was perched on the top balcony, facing in, but with that wonderfully flexible neck glance backwards and sideways and…
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Stump Flies
If you look closely at yesterday’s pictures of recently stumped trees in Green-Wood, you’ll see a fly on one of them. Here are a few more. Saturday got to 60 degrees or so, but these photos were taken earlier in the day when it was perhaps 50. There didn’t seem to be much in the…
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Hearts of Wood
A number of trees in Green-Wood have been cut down. Looks like a contractor has come through and limbed up some and take out some others. There are a lot of stories to be read in the remaining stumps. This is an older cut. Somebody is using it as a butcher block for acorns.
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Humboldt
Across the street from the southeastern corner of the Museum of Natural History is the Naturalists’ Gate to Central Park. Besides it is this massive bust of Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859), the great German explorer, naturalist, and geographer. The bronze was unveiled on the 100th anniversary of his birth as part of the world-wide celebrations of his…
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Winter Baby
Originally posted on Backyard and Beyond: They say that the long and winding road leads to your door.Or, should you be going the other way, which is generally the way to start a walk, walking out that door, say, on a fine evening between four and six, one step after another, the road goes ever…
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The Narrowest Edge
“We so easily settle for the diminished world around us, a world that, in terms of the richness and abundance of plant and animal life, may be a mere 10 percent of what once was. Unaware of what we have lost, we can’t imagine what we might restore, and instead, we argue over how many…
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Backyard and Beyond 