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Autumn: American Chestnut
Prospect Park’s American chestnuts are still with us, no thanks to the onslaught of wild weather this year. One of the young trees is bent over, weighed down by last week’s snowstorm, and not rebounded. The heavy, wet snow combined with still-leaved trees — a fine illustration of why our broad-leaved trees lose their leaves…
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Back 40 Update
A better view of the pin oak sapling. The Staten Island native meadow mix bed. This is my biggest pot; like most everything in my backyard, it was found on the street and recycled. While moving some soil, I found a number of grubs who had buried into the earth for the winter:They buried themselves…
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Sumac Light
Standing under or near certain trees this time of year bathes you in the color of their leaves. They make the space around them glow. I think of Honey Locusts, with their hundreds of thousands of tiny yellow leaflets mellowing the air, and Sumacs, with this brilliant red magic-hour light all day long (as long…
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Milkweed Party
A larval Large Milkweed Bug, Oncopeltus fasciatus, on its eponymous food source in Brooklyn Bridge Park.Two of the adults. The park has several species of milkweed, which hosts a number of interesting animals. Monarch butterflies (and their caterpillars) are the most famous milkweed fans, but they have flown south for the winter. These milkweed bugs,…
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Autumn in Prospect Park
The natural world, our world, changes both subtly and radically. This is why there is an inexhaustible source of material for this blog. Yesterday, in Prospect Park:The Upper Pool’s duckweed, emerald green in summer, has darkened.The glory of the northeast, the Sugar Maple, Acer saccharum, is in fine form, and deserves multiple views. Two different…
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Lace Effect
It’s Halloween, which many now use as an excuse to bring out the lace, mesh, and fishnet. Who am I to not jump on the bandwagon?
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Ranger Robin Sez
Making her first appearance here after being “disappeared” by the Parks Department, Ranger Robin doesn’t hold back when it comes to her opinions: “Clean up after yourself, you little CENSORED! And your mama! And your papa, too!” “Oh, and happy Halloween.”
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Pin Oak
In June, I accidently uprooted a pin oak sapling in the Back 40. I was weeding wildly. Once I saw what I had done, I attempted to replant it. A couple of days later it was utterly overthrown, the work, I believe of a squirrel sapper. But then, in another pot, I noticed another. Both…
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Backyard and Beyond 