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Three More Osprey
Three young Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) bracketed by their parents at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refugee last week. They are on the verge of flying, and what flights! Soon, if they survive the hurdles of fledging and learning to hunt on their own (catching your first big fish must be something!), they will be venturing south into…
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Freshwater
I was enjoying the life above the Duckweed (Lemnaceae) recently, marveling that I’ve never seen so many Eastern Amberwings (Perithemis tenera).There were also a few Blue Dashers (Pachydiplax longipennis), making more Blue Dashers.A damselfly of unknown provenance was depositing eggs. And then, along the edge of the lake, some disturbance from below. There was an…
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Thoreau’s Birthday
“I saw Brooks Clark, who is now about eighty and bent like a bow, hastening along the road, barefooted, as usual, with an axe in his hand; was in haste perhaps on account of the cold wind on his bare feet. When he got up to me, I saw that besides the axe in one…
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Morning Stretch
Upward-facing turtle, with a keen eye on the photographer.
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Alarms will sound
I was struck by the extraordinary amount of bird noise I heard all around me. It’s late in the breeding season, so the territorial and mating songs are mostly done with for the year, but the air was still full of bird calls. Cardinals, Starlings, Mockingbirds, at the least, coming from several trees around me.…
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Flying Now
Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui). I’ve posted previously about separating these from the similar American Lady butterflies (Vanessa virginiensis); from this view, the four big wing spots mark the Painted; two big spots the American.Orange Bluet (Enallagma signatum) male. Small and slender, but striking when you see it: at Green-Wood’s Sylvan Water. At the nearby Valley…
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And during the day?
What do fireflies do during the day? While looking at the various bees working these milkweeds, I noticed three of these lightning-bug beetles in the shade of the leaves.
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Brooklyn’s Two-Spotted Continue
Two years ago, I stumbled upon some unfamiliar ladybugs. There were Two-spotted (Adalia bipunctata), which turned out to be rather rare. It was the first Brooklyn report for the species. Last summer, the site was inaccessible to civilians because of construction. This weekend I took a look at the trees, as I usually do. They…
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George Bird Grinnell and Others
I went up to Woodlawn Cemetery to visit the grave of Herman Melville, and I stumbled upon George Bird Grinnell. Grinnell was born in Brooklyn and tutored by Lucy Bakewell Audubon, widow of John James, at the Audubon home in upper Manhattan. He started the first Audubon organization, believing the name should live on. Bird…
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Declarations of No
Happy Fourth of July! The Revolution being unfinished, this may be a good time to consider the power of saying “no.” The collective power of it, I mean, for individual acts of rebellion are largely useless. History shows us over and over again that only the gathered power of people can counteract the power of…
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Backyard and Beyond 