Brooklyn Bridge Park
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Bloodroot
Bloodroot. What a name, eh? Sanguinaria canadensis has blood-red sap. (The “root” is actually a rhizome.) The sap has historically been used as a dye and for medicinal purposes. They emerge enveloped by the leaf, then shoot above this protective cloak before opening. Look for these on sunny days when they offer their pollen to…
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Hepatica
A single blooming Anemone in the leaf litter. But more are on the way. Some interesting taxonomic issues raised by this one: The genus name for this spring ephemeral used to be Hepatica and some still think it is. Hepatica, meanwhile, is used as the common name; it’s also called Liverleaf or Liverwort. I’m not…
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Longleaf
I’m becoming obsessed with Pinus palustris, the longleaf pine that once covered 92 million acres of the southeast from Maryland to Texas, but now exists in only a handful of preserves. I’ve not seen it in its natural state, only as old lumber repurposed. That’s a piece of it above, one of the benches at…
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Winter Work
A bare patch in the snow finds Starlings, Robin, and White-thoated Sparrow rooting in the leaf litter. Snow cover definitely makes it harder to find seeds and invertebrates.Here’s one of the White-throated Sparrows (Zonotrichia albicollis). This species comes in two forms: this is the white-striped, with the strong white stripe along the forehead. This is…
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The Bear and Me
I wrote this essay for Humans and Nature on the resonances of William Faulkner’s “The Bear” right here in Brooklyn, a long way and a long time since the “big woods” of the south. But there are actual remnants of those lost big woods just down the street from where I live, which got me…
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Twilight’s Last Gulls
This was a recent sunset over Governor’s Island. It was cold there on the edge of the water, colder than anywhere else around, but the sight was worth the bone-chill of time. But even when it’s not a technicolor spectacle — and this one reminded me of the many-initialed Turner — sunset on New York…
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Beautiful
Sometimes in the shit-storm of bullshit that so overwhelms us, we just need to stop and look at the world. Given that it’s February and all the roses are imported from horror-stricken farms where the workers are brutalized and doused with toxic chemicals and then the roses themselves are stripped of their thorns — what…
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Duck Out of Water
I don’t remember the last time I saw a Canvasback (Aythya valisineria). Whenever it was, the bird was in the water. This bright male surprised me on the rocks of Pier 4 at Brooklyn Bridge Park this afternoon. From a distance, with a few Gadwall around him in the water and on the rocks, I…
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Gull’s Eye
That’s not lipstick. Ring-billed Gull (Larus delawarensis), the most common gull in the city.
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Insistent Kinglet(s)
I have had two run-ins with Ruby-crowned Kinglets recently in Brooklyn Bridge Park. These birds are called kinglets because they are little kings, fearless creatures. They are the birds I’ve always gotten closest too; or, put another way, they are birds that have always gotten closest to me. Easily within hand’s reach. They have other…
Backyard and Beyond 