Brooklyn
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Finches
American Goldfinch. Purple Finch. Check out that touch of pink in the throat. Not seen in this one. (That’s a sunflower seed-still-in-shell, not a tongue.) Pine Siskins, and more sunflower seeds. Bit of a challenge for these fine bills, but the Siskins are swarming around the feeders in Dell Water. It’s an extraordinary year for…
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Fall Migration in Play
Lost count of the mosquito bites I got waiting for this Chestnut-sided Warbler to appear within a magnolia. Blue-winged Warbler. Canada Warbler. Focus is unnecessary for American Redstarts. Cape May Warbler. The early migratory “eh-eh-eh” of Red-breasted Nuthatches ravaging our conifers is very welcome. Yellow Warbler making some noise, too. Just enough to tell this…
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Midge Monday
It turns out, because you have to turn the leaflets over, that hickory trees are potentially loaded with gall mites. There are several dozen hickory gall midge species in the Caryomyia genus, each forcing the tree to make a little shelter for the mite. Acting on a call from a curator on iNaturalist, I examined…
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Bent Snapper
Medium-sized snapping turtle. By medium-sized, I mean the shell here is bigger than your average dinner plate. About a month ago, I ran into this same turtle in the water. This carapace (top shell) is unique, and rather unusual. I’ve never seen the spines on the far edge pointing upwards on other specimens.
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Mammal Monday
Why yes, this Common Raccoon does seem to be splayed belly-up in a tree crotch on a hot, humid day. One can only imagine the nocturnal debaucheries this beast has been up to. **** This post dedicated to David Burg, who passed away suddenly on Saturday. He was about 70 and died while walking in…
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The Red Crown
I’m still looking for hard evidence, i.e. fledglings, of Green-Wood breeding Eastern Kingbirds. In the meantime, enjoy this rare look at the rather subtle touch of red on the bird’s head. At Sylvan Water. At Valley Water. Throwing up a pellet of indigestible insect bits. Camera didn’t catch the bolus, but last year….
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Lizard, Abbreviated
Northern Italian Wall Lizard. Lost its tail. The replacement growth is never as long as the original. Podarcis siculus ssp. campestris got to America via the pet trade. They have expanded out from several areas, including on Long Island.Note that this article says there’s no evidence of birds eating these lizards. But in fact, there…
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Tiger, tiger, flying bright
… until caught in a web. An ichneumon wasp — of some kind. You might think something this distinctive looking would be easy to identify. For instance, doesn’t “Tiger Wasp” sound good? But there are a LOT of ichneumon wasps. The Ichneumon genesis alone includes about 143 species in Neartica (most of North America). Here’s…
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Raptor Wednesday
Four American Kestrels have been lately been spotted at the same time in the neighborhood. They’re hard to count, though, since they move from pillar to post and then out of sight with great frequency. On July 2nd, I was in Green-Wood and ran into three females and one male. Again, this is a tentative…
Backyard and Beyond 