Brooklyn
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Monarchy Nears
Prepare for a week of Monarchs! Plant more milkweed! There are around 25 caterpillars in the patch pictured, and they have done an epic job of defoliating these plants down to the bone. All that milkweed energy is going into metamorphosis. (Unless it’s going into a Spined Soldier Bug!)
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Remains of the Night
Something got this bat, or else something else (a car?) got it and then something ate of it. I’m struck by the delicate structure of the rib cage. *** The entomologist and curator Alex Wild said this on Twitter yesterday after the disaster in Brazil: “The loss of the Brazilian National Museum to a preventable…
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Monarch Labor Day
Monarch caterpillars famously withstand the toxic sap of milkweeds. They themselves become toxic to predators by eating milkweed. This gaudy circus look is the opposite of camouflage: it’s a warning! But they don’t want to drown in the sap. This caterpillar chewed away at the stem, or petiole, of this leaf to cut the plant’s…
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Doublewhammy
This Common Grackle with both a broken lower bill and a piece of string stuck onto its foot. *** By The People a new impeachment campaign. Because we can’t depend on politicians.
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The Leeches Are Winning
Snapping Turtles (Chelydra serpentina) in combat.Ugh, the leeches! On face and feet and even shell. This stagnant puddle of “fresh” water is simply crawling, or fluttering, with leeches. Here’s some footage of this colossal wrestling match that was too large to email back to myself from my phone… Here’s Solnit on the absolute necessity of…
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Monarch Monday
Two plump Monarch caterpillars on some common milkweed. They looked ready for a transformation, or metamorphosis….Danaus plexippus, Asclepias syriaca.Nearby, an adult female seemed to be laying eggs. Here is one of the tiny things (I think). Will this egg open up to a caterpillar that becomes a butterfly that flies to Mexico this fall? The…
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Blue-winged Wasp
Putting a little extra sting into your Sunday! This handsome creature is a Blue-winged or Digger wasp (Scolia dubia). The paired yellow spots on the reddish orange abdomen are distinctive for identifying this species, at least around here (as far as I know). “Life style”? They dig into the ground in search of larvae of…
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Second Magnolia
There’s a tendency in some of these exotic magnolias to bloom again in late summer. Should be a few metaphors in this, wot?
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Raptor Wednesday
I’ve wrapped up the #BrooklynKestrels season on the pages of the Clapper Rail, the publication of the Brooklyn Bird Club. Check it, as the kids say, out.It’s a double-raptor issue.
Backyard and Beyond 