-
Full Moon on the Rise
Last night’s full Moon, the Hunter’s Moon, was in penumbral eclipse, passing through the faint shadow of the Earth’s upper atmosphere. The effect was subtle without an un-elcipsed full Moon to compare it to. Shot through a telescope from the 4th floor on Prospect Park West.
-
Wren Nest
A nest of a Marsh Wren (Cistothorus palustris). About the size of a softball, made of woven reeds, with a side-entrance usually facing south. Males may build up to half a dozen partially completed nests in a courting area of territory before females arrive in the spring. A female who choses a particular mate/nest will…
-
Desert Varnish
The “varnish” here, looking a little like apparitional tree trunks, is made up of clay, iron and manganese oxides, and some organic material. And time. The darker it is, the more manganese, a mineral rare on the planet. In some accessible areas, this thin layer can be chipped off to reveal the lighter rock beneath.…
-
Memento Mori
Found, like this, on University Place yesterday. A male Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (Sphyrapitcus varius). You almost never see the yellow-tinged belly from a distance.
-
Field Trip: Cape May
Rothko sunrise on the big beach at Wildwood Crest on the Cape May peninsula, hanging down from New Jersey’s southeastern end like an appendix. I was on the beach about 50 minutes before sunrise, with a long row of mostly-empty-in-the-off-season motels behind me, and the Sanderlings already working the edge of the waves in the…
-
After merely a summer dies the hornet
Unless she’s a queen. A Bald-faced Hornet (Dolichovespula maculata), caste unknown, unexpectedly by the front door buzzer. I rarely see this species, but I know they are neighbors. A local nest was revealed by the fall of leaves a couple of seasons ago. The wood-pulp paper nests are abandoned in the fall and not reused,…
-
Ode to the American Chestnut
These non-blight-resistant trees were transplanted 9 years ago. Read more about them in my earlier post.
-
Subscribe
Subscribed
Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
Backyard and Beyond 