A male feasting on Blazing-Star/Liatris

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One of the Ravens was on St. Mike’s a lot yesterday. Two days earlier, two where up there together. With their South Brooklyn Marine Terminal warehouse nest site gone, I wonder if they’re scouting out the inside of the church tower? Stay tuned.

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My first Common Buckeye/Junonia coenia butterfly of the year, spotted yesterday. I didn’t see a single one of these last year. I wondered if this was because of the removal from Green-Wood of the butterfly-crack Buddleja plants at Valley Water. Butterfly Bush is very appealing to adult butterflies, but as a non-indigenous species it does…

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A Fraternal Potter Wasp/Eumenes fraternus has captured a small caterpillar. She’s in the process of paralyzing it with her stinger. She’ll stuff it into the small mud pot nest she’s made for her young. Last year, I observed the related Mediterranean Potter Wasp/Eumenes mediteraneus, recently introduced to our parts, build her nest.

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There are still spaces on my Saturday Bugging Out tour at Green-Wood, and my Sunday Bugging Out for Kids tour on Sunday. The weather looks good. We’ll definitely see some of the above, Bald-faced Hornets, and the fabulous paper they make for their arboreal nests. A number of readers/subscribers/viewers very generously helped finance the purchase…

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Same bird, I think, on two separate days.

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The National Audubon Society, with assets of half a billion dollars and a President/CEO who makes over 1 million a year*, has joined forces with the likes of the tech-fascist Elon Musk and the Republican-corrupted Supreme Court to destroy what little labor protections there in this country. Audubon has in recent years turned out to…

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Through a milkweed leaf, a tell-tale silhouette: And elsewhere a male adult fueling up:

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All ages of Large Milkweed Bugs/Oncopeltus fasciatus may be seen congregating on Common Milkweed pods this time of year. To grow, nymphs need to shed the exoskeletons of their former selves. I caught this one just about to shake off the last of the husk or exuvia. An empty shell remains.

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An adult Eastern Boxelder Bug/Boisea trivittata. A true bug, of the order Hemiptera: they are suckers, not chewers like beetles. Also, unlike beetles, they have several nymphal stages or instars before they become adult (reproductives). Beetles go from egg to larva to adult. I saw these nymph Boxelder Bugs nearby:

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