Brooklyn
-
Wild Ginger
Now blooming: the ground-hugging flowers of Asarum canadense.
-
Mighty Acorns
Remarkable things, acorns. They’re packed with proteins, carbohydrates, and fats, as well as vital minerals: this is why they make such great animal food. There are not many mast-eaters in Brooklyn Bridge Park, though, where I found these red-to-mahagony colored nuts breaking through the shells recently. After wintering under the big freeze — hibernating, basically…
-
Snails on Saturday
The rain in the middle of the week bought the snails out in the Back 40. Half a dozen were visible from the door for the rest of the week. All are the big ones, Cepaea nemoralis, an introduced species. I’m sure there are others. These two were getting frisky. More snails: the surprising abundance…
-
Some Brooklyn Mammals
Squirrel sunning. Raccoon snoozing. Chipmunk being very still.Woodchuck being elusive. Check out the ground-hogging here on this slope: a duplex! The animal was peeking out of the nearer, top, hole, but vanished into the burrow before I could turn on my cameraSquirrel eating a… wait a minute, that’s a green-dyed Easter egg, more than a…
-
-
Raptor Wednesday
The triumvirate:Red-tailed Hawk in Green-Wood.Cooper’s at Floyd Bennett Field. American Kestrel atop the Green-Wood gate. That’s a lightning rod next to this lightning bolt of a bird.
-
Young Snap
Four, count ’em four, Red-eared Sliders (Trachemys scripta) were basking in the tiny, northernmost pond on Pier One at Brooklyn Bridge Park the other day. Fools keep releasing these invasive, potentially disease-carrying pet-trade animals. Some do it for religious (!) reasons! The effects of all this can be seen in the water course in Prospect…
Backyard and Beyond 