Brooklyn
-
Ivy
A wall of ivy that’s rolled down like a rug ready for storage on a retaining wall of a BQE overpass. Such evergreen thickets are often used by congregations of house sparrows for the night. A host of sparrows is the formal collective noun, but I like congregations because a grouping of sparrows will make…
-
-
Ootheca
A praying mantis egg case, or ootheca, from the Greek for egg (oon) and container (theka). Thanks to Amy for spotting and IDing this for me while we were at Four Sparrow Marsh. These are collected and sold for science projects and pest control in gardens, since mantises devour whatever they can get their prayerful…
-
Tiny snail
Responding to my last post, snail maven Aydin Örstan thought the third of the terrestrial snails harboring on the marine snail shell in my backyard was Vallonia costata. If so — and it looks like it to this mollusk amateur — that would make for five different species of snails found in my concrete slab…
-
Queen Mother Conch
Some time ago, I found a couple of queen conch shells, Strombus gigas, at Dead Horse Bay. Needless to say, this is not this tropical species typical habitat. But the landfill at Dead Horse Bay turns up the strangest things sometimes. Perhaps these were somebody’s souvenirs once. Anyway, a ruthless recycler, I put the shells…
-
Urban Tracker
A large paint spill on the Congress Street sidewalk. Perhaps the bicycles wheels zooming through it and down the block weren’t that surprising, but at least two people tracked through it as well. I wonder if this pigeon thought it was food?
-
-
Late Fall, Late Afternoon
The Upper Pool in Prospect Park ~ Sunday, December 4th, 3:15 p.m. The water is covered in tiny duckweed plants, which, like leaves, have turned the colors of fall.
-
Case in Point
Coney Island Creek this morning before the sun came out. Old barges … a home-made submarine, shopping carts, toxic muck. Pigeons: check. Rats: check, a longshoreman-sized one amid the rocks who turned around to give me the beady eye. But also Common Loons, a Great Blue heron and Black-crowned Night heron on the rotting wood…
-
Bright in November
Some of the last leaves standing in the city are on the Callery pear trees, Pyrus calleryana. (And by “city,” I mean NYC, in case you’re confused by my bi-metropolitan posting of late.) The Callery, especially in its Bradford variety, is a fairly common street tree here. The tree really shines this time of year,…
Backyard and Beyond 