Mid-November. Almost nothing is in bloom, but the higher -than-average temperatures are still bringing out insects. Where can they eat? A patch of still producing Symphyotrichum asters. A single Solidago goldenrod. That stinking Tansy/Tanacetum vulgare is still puttering away…

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November 18th: Orange Sulphur/Colias eurytheme on a still-blooming aster. Well, last butterfly that wasn’t a skipper: also saw a couple of Huron Sachem/Atalopedes huron as well.

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Earlier this year I heard that a local biology professor was responsible for releasing these Italian Wall Lizards/Podacris siculus all over the city. This explains their presence in Green-Wood Cemetery, where they definitely seem to be spreading from what must have been the original release site around the historic chapel. I heard this from one…

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I one saw a Tufted Titmouse scavenging a dead Winter Wren. Maybe that’s why this Red-breasted Nuthatch was the aggressor here. The Big Liar’s “mandate” is of course bullshit.

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Sounding like a typewriter, this Downy Woodpecker was tapping away at Honey Locust seed pods. The woodpecker’s holes are quite different from the exit holes of the creatures I think the bird is hunting. Here’s one of the pods I found on the ground. There were two 3mm diameter exit holes on each side of…

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Unexpected. Always welcome, thrillingly so. But not, perhaps, by perennially territorial Mockingbirds. I’ll be leading a Brooklyn Bird Club walk on Saturday, 11/23, starting at 8 a.m. in Green-Wood Cemetery.

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