Not counting the various bees, flies, dragonflies, and butterflies I already blogged about last month, here are some of the insects I noted in Brooklyn. Above: November 5th: Pimpla pedalis. November 9th: Chinese Mantis/Tenodera sinensis November 9th: leafhopper November 11th: Tephritis pura November 14th: Neogerris hesione November 16th: Lasioglossum November 17th: False Milkweed Bug/Lygaeus turcicus…

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You will be assimilated… this Borg of a Dolichovespula aerial yellowjacket nest has absorbed one of the leaves of the magnolia it was built in. Here’s a nest way up a White Oak. Another magnolia-based nest, this one not too far up and rather small. One each in Horsechestnuts that weren’t too far apart. These…

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A windy day. This female American Kestrel was flying between funeral monuments and occasionally having difficulty with the wind. What’s to eat? Dragonflies? Didn’t see a one. Lizards? Not out in the open, although I did hear some suggestive rustling. Songbirds? Subdued in the wind. You just have to work harder this time of year.…

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Delicious hickory nuts were being enjoyed by at least three Grey Squirrels.

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Turkey Vulture/Cathartes aura at the beginning of a Torrey Botanical Society walk in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx. We looped, and two and a half hours later: Bald Eagle/Haliaeetus leucocephalus. Both birds were seen over the valley of the Bronx River, which is also the course of the Bronx River Parkway and the Metro North…

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From the Brooklyn Raptor Observatory, also known as our apartment, the car service antenna at 40th and 5th is a landmark. American Kestrels perch atop one of the two parts regularly. Merlins, Red-tailed Hawks, Coopers Hawks, and Peregrines have also been known to perch on it, the larger birds preferring the horizontal superstructure (unseen here).…

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Stalking the wild raptor… .. certainly is easier when it comes to Merlins. These small falcons (Falco columbarius) characteristically perch for long periods of time in prominent locations. I had time to close in on the odd shape in a distant tree and get around to have the sun behind me. The bird was unperturbed.…

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A dawn flurry of Feral Pigeons can mean… A Coopers Hawk fox-in-the-hen-house situation. Meanwhile… To fly from the lordly perch atop the giant smokestack on 2nd Avenue to Green-Wood Cemetery at 5th Avenue, Red-tail Hawks have to pass through a gauntlet of American Kestrels. There’s a Kestrel nest site on 4th Avenue, which is not…

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