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Uh-oh
Is this going to end like Bambi Meets Godzilla? (Click on the image if you have a tiny screen for the full nailed-claw effect.) Well, probably not, as this is the turtle’s back leg and the reptile may not even be aware of the Pondhawk’s presence. And while Pondhawks are certainly serious contenders in their…
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C/CKW
The Cicada Killer Wasps (Sphecius speciosus) are out and about now, collecting pollen at flowers to eat, stabbing cicadas for their young…I’m not telling, but here’s a Dog Day cicada (genus Tibicen), more heard than seen by we ground-huggers.The two wasps pictured above are males. They’re smaller than the females. Here’s a female, scare-the-horses-ginormous, patrolling…
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Lilypad Forktail
Lilypad Forktail (Ischnura kellicotti) male damselfly on a lily pad. The location was a big clue to identifying this small damselfly (a fair number of damselfly species are electric blue), which spends its life on and around waterlilies. The downward bending of the abdomen tip when it poses is also characteristic of this species. The…
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Carolina Wren
Carolina Wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus) on a chessboard. Usually more often heard than seen, for this little bird has a big, big voice that rolls through the woods.Here using its tail feathers woodpecker-style, for support against the vertical as it goes about gleaning for insects.
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Clapper
Clapper Rails (Rallus longirostris)* are more often heard than seen. They are named after the clapping-like “kek” sound they make, the soundtrack behind our saltwater and brackish marshes. Several years ago, before the big rehab of the Saltmarsh Center at Marine Park, I had my best view of this species. One kept emerging from the…
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Sun Birds
Have you noticed any birds looking stunned lately? This robin, for instance, was frozen in this off-kilter pose the other day for an inordinately long time, only moving when some other bipeds came by. It looked as if there might be something wrong with it, because birds will usually fly away at the first sign…
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Flying Now
Another black and yellow animal for the day. The Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus). All over the place right now, but hard to get a lens on unless they are feeding. Mostly I see them moving. This is the largest regional butterfly, and pretty much unmistakable, although further north the slightly smaller P. canadensis is…
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Black and Yellow
Black and Yellow Mud-Dauber (Sceliphron caementarium). Remember when they spent a winter nesting in the Back 40? And then bundled out of their mud huts after about 9 months entombed in hard mud like ancient Egyptians?
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Dead Wood?
The fence posts in Brooklyn Bridge Park are made from Black Locust (Robinia pseudoacacia), a durable, naturally rot-resistant wood. Of course, like anything in a natural environment, even one as heavily managed as this, it will end up having more than a single, intended purpose.The top, for instance, is a great place for birds to…
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Backyard and Beyond 