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Autumnal Colors
Just a quick reminder that you don’t actually need to leave New York City to see some spectacular colors. Not that there’s anything in the least wrong with heading north or wherever to leaf peep, but sometimes it doesn’t fit your schedule or budget. These are all from Prospect or Green-Wood.
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Woodcock Sunday
In the fall, it’s not unheard of to flush an American Woodcock while walking in Green-Wood. They explode out of the leaf litter — the first time it happened to me, I was unknowingly close to the bird, so I was perhaps more startled than it was. Their plumage corresponds wonderfully to leaf litter. They…
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Old Man Willow And Co.
At some point in its illustrious career, this Weeping Willow lost a bifurcating trunk, leaving a near horizontal gape about four feet up the bole. The slowly rotting remains inside there provided a seedbed for not one, not two, but three saplings: cherry, maple, and mulberry. This is a four-tree tree, which is the most…
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Fort Tilden Autumn
Note: We actually did see porpoises or dolphins swimming parallel to the beach in the strong surf.
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Instar
Instars are the stages between successive molts of some arthropod species. The word is from the Latin and means likeness or form. Because arthropods are covered in a hard shell, the exoskeleton, they must shed this to grow larger. Ecdysis is the scientific term for this shedding. That cigar-chomping wag H.L. Mencken coined the term…
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Viburnum Bright
Viburnum trilobum or opulus. Either way, cranberry!
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No to TNR
A bill before New York Governor Andrew Cuomo proposes to fund TNR programs around the state. These are efforts to Trap, Neuter and vaccinate, and then Release feral cats back in the places they were found. Feral cats are our number one invasive species. They kill enormous numbers of birds and mammals every year and…
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Master Aster
The wind was making it impossible to focus this perfectly. So it’s a little more abstract, but just as lovely. One of the numerous Asters that make the autumn so exciting to human and pollinator.Another, held firm.These last two pictures may be Smooth Aster. A complicated family.
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Green-Wood Was So Very Birdy
The cold front that came through Saturday night practically snowed birds. There were so many in Green-Wood yesterday I thought it was the height of spring migration. There were several types of sparrows and warblers, both kinglets, thrushes, lots of Flickers, a couple of Red-winged Blackbirds, one or two Brown Creepers, one or more Woodcock,…
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Backyard and Beyond 