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CCD, Incorporated
Last week’s news about the discovery of a virus-bacteria link in Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), which has been wrecking havoc with honey bee populations, got a lot of excited play among those of us who love bees. The story, however, turns out to come up a little short. Seems the lead researcher is in the…
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Spiders
One morning not so long ago when I was in northeastern Massachusetts, I started noticing small spider webs on the rounded hump of a bush in a suburban front yard. As I looked around the bush, it became clear that there were very many webs. Dozens of them, if not hundreds, covering most of the…
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Confusing Fall Warbler
Roger Tory Peterson, the Bronx’s great contribution to ornithology, has a couple of famous-in-the-field pages in his field guide called “Confusing Fall Warblers, etc.” On their way south, the warblers have left their breeding plumage behind them, so they are not nearly as dramatic as in the spring. Juvenile birds, born this spring and summer,…
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LDEO
Last Saturday, I went up to Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory for their annual Open House. I’ve passed the sign on 9W several times over the years, and really only noticed the “observatory” part of the sign; I thought it was an astronomical observatory, built before city and suburb light pollution pretty much ruined East…
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Monarchy
An unusually dark Monarch caterpillar found at that little wonderland of wildness, Brooklyn Bridge Park. The place was full of standard-colored Monarchs about two weeks earlier. This one was the only one seen on a more recent visit. It’s late, but probably not too late. Nearby, I found the remains of a pupa. Also found…
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Night and Day
… you are the one.” All these insects were found in various parts of Massachusetts at the beginning of this month. I am unsure of IDs for the last two. The butterfly may be a pearl crescent. The Dobsonfly at the very top was a good two inches long, one of the weird delights brought…
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Chrysalis
The remains of a pupa, or chrysalis. This was, I think, the temporary home of a specimen of a Monarch, Danaus plexippus, as it underwent metamorphosis from caterpillar to butterfly. The caterpillars themselves were much in evidence here in Brooklyn Bridge Park at the end of August, gobbling up milkweed. Curiously, the milkweeds contains noxious…
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Fall birding
Northern parula, Parula americana, a species typically found at the top of trees. But this south-bound migrant was hungry, and was flitting around at eye-level in Prospect Park before it descended to wrangle with a caterpillar on the ground. An unleashed dog chased it away. The green mantle on the back is an excellent field…
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Death on the rocks
The coast of Cape Ann, Massachusetts: at Pigeon Cove earlier this month, I came across a dead juvenile northern gannet on the rocks. There was a fishing lure lodged in the bird’s mouth. Now, this is only circumstantial evidence for the cause of death, but it’s pretty damn strong circumstantial evidence. Northern gannets, Morus bassanus,…
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Backyard and Beyond 