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Ruddy
A female Ruddy Duck (Oxyura jamaicensis). Preening here, and rather successfully keeping her usually upright tail, a helpful field mark for this small duck, submerged.
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Where have all the Monarchs gone?
Did you notice that there were fewer Monarch Butterflies this year? I only saw a few here and there. They were notable for their rarity. Others I know reported the same situation. The word spread. Of course, this was all anecdotal, as the publicists and lawyers, who one supposes have to feed their children with…
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The Surveyor
Perched on an obelisk. Wind-ruffled.Unruffled by us.And the namesake of an adult Red-Tailed Hawk, Buteo jamaicensis. First year birds will not yet have red-colored tail feathers. But the tell-tale speckled V shape on the back (actually the wings) is another good field mark for the species. The same bird, or just as easily another, since…
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Liquidambar
I did a double-take over these. They are similar to the pods of the American Sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua):but smaller and with much longer points; these are evidently persistent styles. (The pods look rather Goth after they have opened up and dried out.) Also, the leaves are three-lobed: Our Sweetgum has five to seven lobes:So at…
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1000 Urban Miles, Part I
Or six and a half miles to start with… I walked down Clinton Street, still fairly leafy, with yellowing Ginkgo in particular still hanging on, but no female trees along this stretch; their tell-tale fruit, crushed upon the sidewalk, did stench up other sections of my route. The fig growing on a side street is…
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Put A Fish On It
Seen within a couple blocks of each other recently on Centre St. in the Inner Borough. Above, business card on the street. Below: throw pillow through a window (…it would be a serious pillow to be able to break the glass).Now, you may protest that a whale is not a fish, as do I. A…
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Silent Nests
Revealed by the thinning of the leaves, two more Bald-faced Hornet (Dolichovespula maculata) nests:Note the differences in the color pattern of the wood-pulp paper between the above nest and the one below. I have some paper that is predominately reddish, but the one above is the usual pattern I see here in Brooklyn. The all-gray…
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Little Pigs
Or boars to be more exact. This is an early 14th Century coat of arms from the Porcelet family of Provence. The family Piglet! I would guess they changed their name and emblem by the time the Renaissance showed up in the form of Caterina de Medici, who brought the fork, for sticking into Huguenots,…
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Backyard and Beyond 