Way up in a linden at Sylvan Water in Green-Wood. And on the rocks at Bush Terminal Park.

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New York City isn’t very rich in Scolliidae. Above is the first Noble Scoliid Wasp/Scolia nobilitata I’ve seen here, spotted last week in Green-Wood. It’s the tenth iNaturalist observation of the species in the city. We do have a lot of Blue-winged Scoliid Wasps, also known as Two-spotted Scoliid here in the East (Scolia dubia ssp. dubia).…

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Sightings of American Kestrels are starting to pick up. Male above at Green-Wood’s neogothic gate giving the Monk Parakeets something to talk about. I’ve looked up at the various spires of this big Greek Orthodox church in Bay Ridge every time I’ve walked by, but this past weekend was the first time I’d seen a…

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Harlequin Bug/Murgantia histrionica. Also known as the Harlequin Cabbage Bug. They like brassicas and can store up the mustard oil found in cruciferous plants to make themselves unpalatable. Perhaps why they are so boldly colored. Can’t touch that! First time I’ve seen them.

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Pretty sure this is off a Great Horned Owl. Because nearby were also: and:

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Grooming wasp on a leaf. Such yellow and black wasps get called yellowjackets, but that’s not a species-specific term. This one looks like it could be a ground yellowjacket of the genus Vespula. We have at least five Vespula species in NYC, the most common being Eastern/V. maculifrons and the introduced German/V. germanica, which has…

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From a distance, without benefit of optics, I thought this was a worm with grass still attached to it. But no, this Northern Mockingbird definitely has a mantid. Predator versus predator…

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You will have guessed that my eyes have been glued to the old Chapel in Green-Wood since a lightning bolt blew up the cross atop it in July. I’ve been waiting to see American Kestrels back up there. On Friday, I saw a female fly to the perch. About 45 minutes earlier, I spotted a…

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