Green-Wood
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Bur!
Quercus macrocarpa, the bur oak, is supposed to have the largest fruit (macro carpa) of all North American oaks. This acorn is in a 1.5″ long mossy cup. One of the species’ distinctive, pinched-waisted leaves on the plate, too. The plate was purchased by my parents in my natal Japan. How about these apples, from…
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Kestrel Wednesday
I walked by the Kestrel perch the next day, on the off-chance he would be there. Nope. But I was on a round-trip errand, so when I returned, there he was. Not the same branch, but the same linden. This time I was on the avenue, meaning rather closer to his height on the tree…
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Revealed
Paper can be strong stuff, but it’s all relative. The exterior coating of wood-pulp paper made by Dolichovespula maculata hornets, who scrape dead trees (or fence posts!) with their mighty jaws, has been stripped off by the weather. Horizontal layers of comb are revealed within. And still-capped larvae probably all killed by the freeze. The…
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Belted
The female Belted Kingfisher (Megaceryle alcyon) was tick-purring at Valley Water again recently. This time I got some better photos and got to listen to her for some minutes. (Long-time readers may recognize the hedgehog galls glimpsed on the leaves of this oak, and also that the tree has gotten a bit taller in four…
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November Slider
Recently on Valley Water… a lone Red-eared slider was enjoying the freakish day. * I no more enjoy writing about the human excrement that is Donald Trump than you do reading about it. When he tweeted the disgusting Britain First tweets yesterday, giving aid and comfort to yet more fascists — the murderer of MP…
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Raptor Wednesday
Well, hello there! My first sight of this male American Kestrel (Falco sparverius) was a dark shape in a tree. The winter sun is getting so low on the horizon that even at 1:30 in the afternoon every bird with the sun behind it looks like a Starling.Him falcon was mighty obliging, though, allowing me…
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Oak Wilt, Damn It
Word around the corner on the avenue, although of course it should also be in Spanish (as here) and Cantonese. Greenwood Heights is located some twenty blocks away, tucked around Green-Wood Cemetery. There are plenty of oaks in Green-Wood, where the disease may have first been noted, as well as on the street. Here’s a…
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Hickory Harvest
Carya cordiformis, Bitternut. A rich fall. Bitter they may be, but somebody likes ’em.They are very thinly husked.
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Hickory Wind
Incoming! The hickory nuts were falling the other day. The big ones and the little ones. This is a Bitternut (Carya cordiformis), at least according to its label, and the nuts, the smallest below, certainly look right for the species. These ricocheted and caromed off branches as they fell, a subtle drumming (I mean, for…
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Fall?
Well, they fell, but they were the wrong color. The long lasting warmth seems to have kept many of the leaves going. Then a cold snap came. Ginkgo leaves usually turn a gorgeous yellow in the fall. Sassafras leaves should range from yellow to bright red. Sure, plenty of leaves have turned, but boy, this…
Backyard and Beyond 