I hadn’t been to the Naval Cemetery Landscape since 2015. In anticipation of helping with a bug and bird tour last Saturday, I visited the day before. It’s quite a special place. Note the raised boardwalk: it was built to not disrupt the remains below. Some of the sights: Native lady beetles are uncommon locally.…

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Entylia carinata: I ran into one of these small, ornate treehoppers this past weekend. They are Hemiptera, true bugs, meaning they suck plant juices, instead of, say, chewing plants. (As it happens, they’re in the same infraorder as cicadas.) Also as it happens, I started to read Ed Yong’s An Immense World on Tuesday. The…

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As soon as this male American Kestrel landed atop the Church of the Falcons in Windsor Terrace, an Eastern Kingbird was on the case. To no avail.

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A Sweetgum-dominated pond in Cunningham Park’s Southeast Preserve. In 1917, a survey of northern Queens by Harper found Black Oak/Quercus veluntina (14% ) and American Chestnut/Castanae dentata (11%) the two main hardwood species in the uplands. The latter was represented only by stumps and dying trees, so Harper considered his findings to represent the state…

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On May 20th, five days after this photo, there were at least two American Robin chicks in this nest.

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Dozens of ornamental cherries were recently planted in Sunset Park. They’ve already lost their blossoms, so they’re back to their eleven-months-of-the-year uselessness. P. subhirtella ‘Autumalis’ and P. serrulata ‘Kwanzan’ do nothing to little for the ecosystem or biodiversity. I find it hard to imagine how, in 2024, the parks Department could be so foolish.

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One of the metallic sweat bees on the tiny flowers of Rhus aromatica. Somebody has eaten a chunk of this Quaking Aspen leaf and then tucked itself into the fold of the leaf. This is a sawfly larvae, NOT a caterpillar. Caterpillars, the larvae of moths and butterflies, have five or fewer prolegs; sawfly larvae…

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Yes, it’s this one again, the wing-gapped male. Here he is atop St. Michael’s stupa-esque tower, the highest point around for many blocks. This is more generally the perching place of local Peregrines.

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Warblers, amirite?

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I’ve seen a lot of abused tree pits in this town: bricked up, rubbled up, garbaged up, shitted up. Turned into parking for two-wheeled-vehicles of various sorts, with long chains around the tree. I’ve seen ’em treeless and I’ve seen ’em completely filled up with a rectangle of horizontal tree growth, like roots come to…

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