Green-Wood
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Red-Tailed Hawk Stalking
A young Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) patrolling the 5th Avenue entrance of Green-Wood. I would hazard to guess that it is wondering where that Eastern Grey Squirrel went.
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Trio of Dragonflies
12-spotted Skimmer (Libellula pulchella) male. Common Whitetail (Plathemis lydia) male. Eastern Pondhawk (Erythemis simplicicollis) male. What’s up with all the males? They’re patrolling territory, in this case the ponds of Green-Wood, while females generally only show up to these sites when they want to mate. Otherwise the females are over the fields and meadows, at…
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More Beetlemania
This tiny beetle is Sehirus cinctus, the White-margined Burrowing Beetle. 4-6.5mm long. There were several on the very hairy leaves of what looks like Stachys something or other. Adult females of this species care for their young, which is fairly unusual in the insect world. Plenty of insects provision their young, but most aren’t around…
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Mammal Eyes
A young Grey Squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) in Green-Wood. You have to watch out for these: once, one started climbing up my leg, looking for a parent.Winter’s coming! (As hard as it is to imagine.) So there’s no time for paternity suits at the NYBG. Eastern Chipmunk (Tamias striatus).
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Orange Bluet
Most of the bluet damselflies are, you guessed it, blue, but this one bucks the trend. Sort of: this is a mature male, but when he was younger, he had blue markings instead of these orange ones. Enallagma signatum.
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Butterfly Showcase
Starting to see a few Monarchs (Danaus plexippus) out and about. And the Black Swallowtails (Papilio polyxenes) are also active now. Male above, female below, I think. Eastern Tiger Swallowtail(Papilio glaucus) female. A very conspicuous butterfly, both for her size (4-4.5″ wingspan) and her bold tiger-like patterning. Males lack the deep blue. But wait! Delaying…
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Monks Eat With Their Hands
Monk Parakeets (Myiopsitta monachus) munching on fresh Hemlock cones.Here, if you’re doing eye-flips over wild parrots in Brooklyn, is more information about these Andean-origin birds.Usually fairly skittish, these raucous birds were so intent on eating that half a dozen of them tolerated us standing not so far away from them for a while. At least…
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Marmota Monax Update
How many Groundhog/Woodchucks are there in Brooklyn? We saw three the other day.These two were munching near a burrow now completely covered by understory growth. The second pictured here was rather smaller than the first, so perhaps it was a youngster. The third of the day’s Whistlepigs was some distance away.
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Fruiting Bodies
The shapes of these old mushrooms — some kind of bolete? — fascinate. They are split and cracked; some look as if they have been nibbled by somebody; others bored into by something. Age makes character.
Backyard and Beyond 