Green-Wood
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Monday Prep
A selection of recent sightings in Brooklyn and the Bronx to rev up your Monday morningI don’t think I’ve ever gotten a good picture of a Gray Hairstreak with wings open before.
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Mockingbird Tales
Over the course of a couple of hours at a single vantage point, amidst many other sights and sounds, we watched Mockingbirds do their thing. Which is noisy territorial policing. In the distance, a Mockingbird chased a female Kestrel. (This also happened quite a bit with the local #BrooklynKestrels after fledging; a Mocker seemed to…
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Busy as…
“Moral anger against oppression needed to be matched by an understanding of how economic systems create and sustain that oppression” Two interesting historical takes at Little Sis (vs. Big Brother) on the importance of connecting the dots. On the military-industrial system, which of course never went away. And at SNCC, on the front line of…
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Sphex ichneumoneus
What a gorgeous wasp. Feeding on Monarda punctata, whose flowers are rather attractive, too. Great Golden Sand-digger. As the common name suggests, they nest in solitary holes in the ground. Adults feed on nectar. The female provisions her young in these sandy nest caves with paralyzed Orthoptera: crickets, katydids, grasshoppers.The back of the thorax is…
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Ardea Duo II
A week later on another of Green-Wood’s “waters.” Great Egret and juvenile Great Blue together again. The Great Blue did a lot of preening. So many feathers, after all. And such long ones! Great Blue primaries are 14″ (36cm) long.The Great E hunted right up its belly. The bird grabbed three small fry. The frogs,…
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Ardea Duo
Ardea herodias and Ardea alba. As a rule, the Great Blue Heron, on the left, is a larger bird than the Great Egret on the right. This GBH is a juvenile, so perhaps not up to full size, and, of course, the GE is closer. Speaking of closer. The Blue walked towards me. I was…
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This Used To Be Lawn
“Now it’s all covered in flowers.”And grasses. Good riddance! This hillside in Green-Wood, near the 5th Avenue entrance, has been converted into meadow. From turf, fertilizer- and chemical- warfare dependent turf, nasty turf, to this riot of life. Yes, it’s “messy,” gloriously so! It’s only a tiny portion of the cemetery, of course. Too many…
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Raptor Wednesday
I can’t recall ever being this close to a Red-tailed Hawk. This is the one I posted about a couple weeks ago.Beset by tiny songbirds, the bird perched no more than 10 feet above the ground.Eyelids closed! That’s something I don’t see often.Those feet!Yes, those feet. Those toes!
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Train
Ardea alba, the Great Egret.These long breeding plumes, known as aigrettes, were one prized by the fashion industry. (An industry as ugly in the 1890s as it is now.) Great Egrets were slaughtered wantonly for their feathers; since these feathers are breeding plumage, the birds would be shot during breeding season, condemning the next generation…
Backyard and Beyond 