Brooklyn
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Monarch Eggs
Monarch butterfly laying an egg on an emergent common milkweed leaf on Sunday in Green-Wood. This little plant is an outlier from the patch here, in danger of being mown or “weeded,” alas. I also watched her deposit eggs on two much taller, already flowering, plants that were part of the official patch. Closer up,…
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Mammal Monday
Eastern Chipmunks (Tamias striatus) are few and far between in Green-Wood. I see them there rarely, but the other day a wren-brown spot in the distance, which I thought might, in fact, be a wren, turned out to be this one. There are rather more Chimpmunks in Prospect Park. The closest these two green islands…
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Spiders
Literally ran into this one’s silk and started carrying her along. Zebra Jumping Spider, fairly common, which may be because they are relatively easy to identify. Six-spotted Orbweaver, although I could only get pictures from the underside. About eye-level in a tree. Common Spitting Spider. A neighbor. Pholcus genus spider with something else alive. Actually,…
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A Bee-y Slope
Now, I know some people will freak out over a lot of bees flying around at ankle-height in the spring sun, but if you make sure you don’t step on any of these mounds, you’ll be fine. Not because they’re going to attack you, but because it’s quite rude to stomp on somebody’s nest. (More…
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Warblers
Sometimes they land right in front of you. Magnolia Warbler. Other times, most times, not so much. Bay-breasted Warbler. Rather more typical view… Wilson’s Warbler, named after pioneering ornithologist Alexander Wilson. And sometimes, termites reproductives, the winged ones, emerge, and the songbirds fly right overhead hawking them out of the air. (As I was trying…
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Two Well-Grounded Warblers
Ovenbird. Worm-eating Warbler. (Needs a better publicist, right?)
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Raptor Wednesday
Every once and a while, an Osprey scouts out Green-Wood’s Sylvan Water, the largest body of water in the cemetery. Just in case. There certainly are fish in there. This one is entirely too small for an Osprey, but intriguing nonetheless. What is it? Of course, that fish is perfect for a Kingfisher. This one…
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Raptor Wednesday: Earth Day Edition
In April 1970, at the time of the first Earth Day, there weren’t many Bald Eagles to be found in the Lower 48. Your chance of seeing one over Brooklyn, of all places, was extremely unlikely. Practically fabulous. That they might breed within the city’s limits was an equally outlandish notion. Even before DDT brought…
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Small Birds
Palm Warbler. Golden-crowned Kinglet. Yellow-rumped Warbler variations. Pine Warbler. Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. Here’s a special one. Yellow-throated Warblers breed to the south of us. So they’re rarer up here, having overshot their migration. Note the lores here. The spaces between the eyes and the bill. That line is white in this case. This makes this one…
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Beech Sproutling
This curious thing is what you get when a beechnut sprouts. Considering the number of beechnuts dropped by a mature tree, these aren’t commonly seen. Does the parent tree’s shade and/or chemistry suppresses upstarts?
Backyard and Beyond 