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Foxy Thoughts
In our hyper-specialized society, “amateur” is far from a noble description. It is, in fact, usually the opposite, a term of disparagement, insult, attack. Meanwhile, in the sports-entertainment industry, it has lost all meaning, corrupted by the NCAA’s exploitative hypocrisy and the corporate/nationalist perversion of the Olympics. But the word’s roots lie in the Latin…
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Field Trip: Moths, Spider
From inside the house. And running along the ground. There actually seem to be a lot of spiders running on the ground up there.
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Local critters
Inside, on a wall. Outside in the Back 40, in a pot.
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Natural Object: Seeds
Mighty oaks from little acorns grow, but you know that. And the Giant sequoia, Sequoiadendron giganteum, of inland California — as distinct from the coastal redwoods, Sequoia sempervirens — comes from these little things. By volume, these Giants are the largest living thing on the planet. A superlative beast by any standard, in fact: can…
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Snail Tales, part III
For a change of pace, a fresh water gastropod, which means I did not find these in the Back 40. The species is a Brooklyn resident, however: I took this photo at the Valley Water in Green-Wood. I think the snail is Viviparus malleatus, the Chinese mystery snail, a.k.a. the Japanese trapdoor snail. (Like many…
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Another Back 40 Gastropoda
Leopard slug, Limax maximus. This species is native to Europe, but is now found in many other parts of the world. I wasn’t aware until just now that this member of the Gastropoda actually does have a “shell,” only it is internal, underneath the shield, which is that spotted portion at the top front end.…
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Birding Prospect
As I won’t be getting to Prospect Park for the next several days, I decided I needed an early April census of birds to compare the coming weeks to. Yesterday, I entered the Park at 9th Street and walked down to the Pools and through the Ravine and across the Midwood and the Vale and…
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Snail tales, part II
They leave a trail of slime and eat your plants, or at least some of them do, but gastropods, with their shells, love darts (!), and hermaphroditism, are as remarkable as any other life-form. (Until you’ve seen slugs mating, my friend, you have not lived. A future post will get sluggy. ) Last autumn, while…
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In Green-Wood
In Green-Wood, a couple of frogs, and many, many tadpoles. Plump tadpoles.
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Snail tales, part I
My Brooklyn backyard is a wall- and fence-enclosed concrete rectangle some 14 by 25 feet in size. A metal balcony and stair overshadowed about one third of the space. Very little sun reaches it during the winter, but come spring it is much less like the bottom of a well. In summer, it’s hot and…
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Backyard and Beyond 