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More, please
Like tracks into the future, irrigation lines underline the new plantings at Pier 5, Brooklyn Bridge Park.
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High Gloss Lady
My “Year of the Ladybug” continues. Or, should I say, Year of the Aphids? Since it is the aphids, those little buggers, who have ushered in the ladies. This glossy creature is the Polished Lady Beetle, Cycloneda munda, a species new to me.Also known commonly as the Red Lady Beetle and the Immaculate — that…
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High tide
Most of the high tide trash here in the corner of the Brooklyn Bridge Park salt marsh is made up of the tops of plastic bottles. What a fine place to be reminded of Brooklyn-raised Barry Commoner’s four laws of ecology: everything is connected; everything has to go somewhere; nature knows best; there is no…
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Prospect Park
The Upper Pool is just starting to blush with the coming of fall. A walk through the park yesterday. We saw: Wood Duck, Mallard, Red-tailed Hawk, Rock Pigeon, Mourning Dove, Chimney Swift, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker, Hairy Woodpecker, Northern Flicker, American Kestrel, Blue Jay, Black-capped Chickadee, Red-breasted Nuthatch, White-breasted Nuthatch, Brown Creeper, House Wren, Carolina…
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Early Fall
Yesterday morning around 10, it was under 60F and cloudy. The bumblebees were not quite warmed up. Some didn’t move at all, others were quite sluggish. Burly little things, with lots of muscle, which is one of the reasons they are one of the first flying bugs in the spring. They can warm themselves up…
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Confused Tulips
More likely a confused blogger. I am informed by a sharp-eyed reader that these are autumn crocuses, Colchicum speciosum, not tulips (their stalks were distinctly pallid, making me think they were ailing tulips). At the very southern end of the Promenade right now. With two species of ants exploring their tender hearts.
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Mantids Take Brooklyn Bridge Park
I’ll be giving a tour for Brooklyn Bridge Park volunteers tomorrow. What will we see? Here are some of the things I’ve run into in the Park in the two years it has been open. And here’s the latest sighting:Chinese mantid, Tenodera aridifolia. Introduced to the U.S. in the late 19th century to go after…
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To see the world in a grain of
I find these in my apartment every once and a while.I assumed they come in via my shoes. But before that? And then I noticed some in the bottom of my backpack. Hmmm. For some reason this made me think of those silica gel desiccant packets. I’ve never knowingly opened one of these packets before.…
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Re-blooming
A resurgent Magnolia bloom, as sweet smelling and disconcerting as early spring. Yesterday afternoon, Atlantic Avenue entrance to Brooklyn Bridge Park.
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Grasshopper
Almost two inches long, and with bold chevrons on their hind femurs, the Differential Grasshoppers (Melanoplus differentialis) are out and about now and engaged in making little grasshoppers for the future. They are fans of the Polygonum smartweeds, which grow practically anywhere, which means you might stumble across one (grasshopper, plant) in the midst of…
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Backyard and Beyond 