The very distinctive organ-pipe like mud tubes built by Trypoxylon politum, the Orang-pipe Mud-dauber Wasp. The ones with holes are previous years. These are this year’s. In fact, the darker mud on the top shows it’s still in the works. I see these tubes much more often then I see the actual wasps. In fact,…

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Paper. Looks the aborted nest of a Dolichovespula wasp, probably a Bald-faced Hornet. Mud. Looks like the work of an Eumenes genus potter wasp. Paper. Polistes, probably the ubiquitous European Paper Wasp. Mud. The bare leftovers of the mud tubes built by Organ-pipe Mud-daubers/Trypoxylon politum. Looks like some even older ones above the two in…

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One month ago. Three days ago. This huge antenna at 10th Ave and 20th street is across the street from Green-Wood and a few blocks from Prospect Park. The tallest thing around, it commands the raptor heights.

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Foraging and depositing eggs on Swamp Milkweed. A week later, another (?– it wasn’t so far away) depositing eggs on Common Milkweed.

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A month ago in Ohio, I spotted this boldly indigo sharpshooter. This week I saw one here in Brooklyn. This turned out to be what seems to be the first iNaturalist observation of this species in New York state.

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One of the Ammophila thread-waisted sand wasps. Perhaps A. nigricans. (There are some 62 species in this genus in North America according to bugguide.net.) These are caterpillar and sawfly larvae hunters. Now, this surprised me. I mean, look at this beast: everything here says wasp. It is, however, a Two-banded Cellophane-cuckoo Bee/Epeolus bifasciatus. Family Apidae…

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Above are two images each of the three major color variations I observed of female Cercis bicornuta. Below are a couple of variations on the male:

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Last week, they took down the old warehouse at South Brooklyn Marine Terminal. With it went the long-time Common Raven nest. Ten days earlier, I saw two Ravens from nearby Bush Terminal Park. The area between the park and 1st Avenue is also slated for big developments, in this case a move/TV studio. Early yesterday…

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Four-toothed Mason Was/Monobia quadridens. Prey: small moth caterpillars. Great Black Digger Wasp/Sphex pensylvanicus. Katydids. Great Golden Digger Wasp/Sphex ichneumoneus. Katydids. Parker’s Thread-waisted Wasp/Prionyx parkeri. Grasshoppers. Yellow-legged Mud-dauber Wasp/Sceliphron caementarium. Spiders. Hump-backed Beowulf/Philanthus gibbosus. Ground-nesting bees. Hidalgo Mason Wasp/Euodynerus hidalgo. Moth caterpillars. Ammophila pictipennis. Moth and skipper caterpillars. Noble Scold Wasp/Scolia nobilitata. Scarab beetle larvae.

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