Brooklyn Bridge Park
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Two-Spotted in Brooklyn
One more species of lady beetle spotted in Brooklyn Bridge Park, on the catalpa trees, whose big leaves are sticky with aphid honeydew. This is the Two-Spotted lady beetle (Adalia bipunctata). There were several of them, so there must have been a recent pupation. This species is native to North American and Europe, making it…
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Small Milkweed Bug
Yes, there’s a Large Milkweed Bug, too. This is Lygaeus kalmii. The bright colors are warning you, o bug-eating one, that this critter is a bitter pill to swallow: sucking on milkweed juice — as a true bug of the Hemiptera order, it’s a sucker not a chewer — makes it so.
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Common Tern
“Comintern”? It’s a wonder these things weren’t exterminated during the Cold War. Sterna hirundo. This one was fishing from the pier, leaning over and examining the water for several moments before dropping down to capture a small fry. A couple of days later, I saw another, or perhaps the same bird, perching on the pier,…
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Fledgling
Northern Mockingbird in Brooklyn Bridge Park about an hour ago. This may be the very bird noted by a fellow BBP scout.
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Pollinators
I took a walk through Brooklyn Bridge Park yesterday afternoon. It was very windy, which made photographing flying insects quite a challenge. I saw my first Monarch butterflies of the year, as well as an American Lady. Black Saddlebags dragonfly. Great Northern Bumblebee (amongst a host of small, medium, and large bumblebees I am otherwise…
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Ladybugs: Aphid-Eaters
Checker Spot ladybug (Propylea quatuordecimpunctata) munching on an aphid wing. Laval-stage lady beetles are also great aphid-devourers. This is why a number of different species of lady bugs have been introduced into North America over the years: to attack the real destruction aphids can cause. The Checker Spots were one such introduction.The Multi-colored Asian lady…
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Plant Suckers
Being only an irregular gardener, I haven’t had much experience with real aphid infestations. But now I think I understand why the little plant suckers are so loathed. Brooklyn Bridge Park has a couple of infestations right now: red aphids on sunflowers and yellow ones on milkweeds.There are more than 1,300 species of aphids (Aphididae)…
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Brooklyn Bridge Park
The cattails (Typha angustifolia) are as high as an elephant’s eye. In fact, one of the gardeners was actively clearing some of these out, saying they were growing outwards and the goldenrod was growing inwards, and without care there would not be any pond after too long. Butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa), my favorite milkweed family…
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All praise to the pollinators!
It’s National Pollinator Week. While honeybees get most of the media attention, there are some 250 different species of bees found in New York City. Recently, a new species of sweat bee was named after being discovered in Prospect Park. Here’s yet another type of local bee. This is a genus Megachile leaf-cutter bee, so…
Backyard and Beyond 