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Froggy
Valley Water in Green-Wood is swarming with tadpoles right now. Here’s one of many hundreds popping up for a gulp of air. They were zooming up and then down into the murk.This rock, however, provided a nice docking area for them. Not sure if there is more than one species here or some are just…
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Pondhawk
Common or Eastern Pondhawk (Erythemis simplicollis). This is an immature male; his thorax will turn completely blue as he reaches maturity. Superficially like the common Blue Dasher, but larger, with clear wings, and white appendage. These Pondhawks are known as great predators, and capture and eat dragonflies their own size, including others of their own…
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Your Morning Chipmunk
Eastern Chipmunk (Tamias striatus) in the Vale of Cashmere. Cute as the dickens, but you know, without any predators they can become quite a problem, being predators themselves.
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PSA
Fruit Street Sitting Area, Brooklyn Heights. Peak over the edge here, cautiously, and note how this vine is hugging the stone. Must just love that CO2 being pumped out of the traffic on the BQE below. And in fact, a warmer, more CO2-filled atmosphere makes this stuff grow like Topsy. Leaves the size of pie-pans…
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Dead Trees
Just before my trip abroad, I came across Robert Macfarlane’s The Old Ways. I remembered Macfarlane’s name from the introduction he wrote to one of my favorites, J.A. Baker’s The Peregrine, in the NYRB Classics edition. That was a good sign. And the topic of his book! A best-seller across Ye Pond, The Old Ways…
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Lily, Amberwings
Male Eastern Amberwing (Perithemis tenera) on Water Lily (Nymphaeaceae). Twisted love: Amberwings making more Amberwings. The female, who lacks the amber wings, immediately started depositing eggs on a drop of water on a water lily leaf after this acrobatic display. This species is just about an inch long, making it one of the smallest dragonflies…
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British Bugs
A selection of the insects spotted on my Dartmoor walk, most of which I can’t identify, so if you know ’em, holler below in the comments.This one was easy to look up. (And be sure to click on the image to get a closer look at the wings.) There are only two damselfly species with…
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Single Swallowtail
Black Swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes) female. Missing one of her “swallowtails,” perhaps lost to a bird.On Joe-Pye Weed (genus Eutrochium), that pollinator magnet.
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Natural History Museum
The Natural History Museum is amazing inside and out.Some of the specimens collected by Alfred Russel Wallace himself. This year is the centenary of his death (he lived to be 90).
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Backyard and Beyond 