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In Green-Wood
The great Victorian necropolis of Green-Wood Cemetery comes into its own in spring-time when the ornamental and specimen trees start their blooming into glory.A trio of turtles were sunning themselves around the Valley Water. In the pond itself, a thumb-sized bullfrog tadpole emerged from the murk and then quickly descended back into the obscurity. There…
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Wicked Network
I don’t own a TV, so I don’t see very much of it. It’s a stupefying medium, even beyond its commercial imperative to attarct eyeballs with whatever it takes, but of course it’s hard to avoid. So, not so long ago, I saw an ad for the National Geographic Channel’s new “reality” series Wicked Tuna.…
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Weekend Update
On various errands this rainy weekend. Still, there was no stopping the sights to be seen as soon as I walked out the front door. The tulip, that bulb-bundle of joy, is one of the few store-bought flowers I actually appreciate.The Amelanchier is in bloom. Traditionally, this means the ground is thawed out enough to…
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Does This Komodo Make Me Look Fat?
There’s a giant monitor lizard on the loose at Atlantic Ave and Henry St. It’s about five feet long and looks hungry. I’ve called 911 and the ASPCA and the tabloids. Traffic snarled, people freaking out, dogs hiding. If you’re in the neighborhood, for God’s sake, stay indoors!
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Dire Ox
By now, a lot of you know about the abandoned brick-arched train tunnel underneath Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn. But I’m guessing far fewer of you are aware of the caves honeycombing what the geologists call the “Heartland Formation” “Ravenswood Granodiorite” under Brooklyn Heights. I had a rare opportunity to go there recently with the Brooklyn…
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Zoo-ology
The very rare and endangered North American Bare-Faced Feathered Cobra, Pseudobitis clementins, rarely stirs in its thicket at the Bronx Zoo. But it’s overnight escape into the wilds of Van Cortland Park has stirred something in this jaded city’s breast. A Facebook page and fueding Twitter accounts (@BareFacedCobra, @RealBareFaceCobra, @CobraAmI) allege to chart the animal’s…
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A Mystery
This is brand new Tulip tree (Liriodendron tulipifera) leaf, pinky-nail-sized, still to unfold into its characteristic mitten-like shape. That was the extent of early spring growth on these giants of our forest one weeks ago, so when I noticed a patch of rich green way up on a branch of a mature specimen of this…
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The Darling Buds of… March?
The two crab apple trees on my block are now blooming. Title riff: “Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May” ~ Shakespeare, Sonnet 18.
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Ouroboros
Every twenty years or so, my dander gets up and I write a letter to the New York Times. In the mid-1980s, I did it to spank Edward Teller, who poo-pooed the concept of nuclear winter in an Op-Ed, with a reminder of the global climate effects of “Eighteen Hundred and Froze to Death.” That…
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Long Horns
Sometimes you don’t notice the details (or the scandalously narrow field of focus) of a macro shot until later. Check out these great big antenna, like something you’d find on long-horned cattle. This worker ant is busy on that understory delight Spicebush, Lindera benzoin.
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Backyard and Beyond 