Mourning cloaks must have been sumptuous to have inspired the common name of this butterfly. These overwinter locally, tucking themselves into bark crevices and the like. Ubiquitous Cabbage Whites making more Cabbage Whites. American Ladies were fluttering ashore along the Rockaway Peninsula on Monday, the warmest day of the year so far. They move up…

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The crazy sound of summer: Laughing Gulls overhead along the city’s edges. And sometimes a bit further inland, as here where some rat-fancier has dumped a huge amount of old bread on a traffic island on Avenue U.

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My third Osprey sighting of the year, flying above the eclipse crowd at Green-Wood. The best place to see these fish-eating birds in Brooklyn is at Marine Park, where two nest platforms are occupied again this year. The one pictured above has been occupied for many breeding years. This one has been unoccupied for years,…

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New to me, that its. These first three are all introduced to the region from elsewhere. I found them all on the Wild West Side of Marine Park, amid the ATV tracks, cat/rat feeding stations, trash, and high tide wrack line right at the bordering road. What the what? Those eyes are all Hymenoptera, but…

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Sixteen sacred, or profane, Glossy Ibises flying overhead at Marine Park Saltmarsh Nature Center.

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Flies galore all over this bloom Box/Buxus. Must smell like death, corruption, rot, excrement, Trump. And one big wasp. This time of year, last fall’s mated females or gynes are emerging, ready to start being queens. German Yellowjacket/Vespula germanica.

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Four of the last five times I’ve been down to Bush Terminal Park, I’ve spotted a female American Kestrel. She must recognize me, too. More falcon news: I hear there are four eggs at the 55 Water St. Peregrine nest.

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