Green-Wood
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Formula
Catkin + glove = early spring. P.S. Tomorrow I’ll be leading a Brooklyn Bird Club walk in Green-Wood Cemetery. We will be on the look-out for early migrants and active year-’rounders. We’ll start at 8 a.m. at the neo-gothic gates at 25th Street and 5th Avenue. Everybody’s welcome and it’s free. Bring binoculars.
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Cloak and Dagger
Mourning Cloak (Nymphalis antiopa) in the flowers of an early blooming crab apple (Malus). Actually, on second viewing, this seems to be a cherry (Prunus). The butterfly’s long tongue, rather like an oil derrick, or a dagger, plunging into the heart of the nectar. Seems like a good year for Mourning Cloaks. Note that this…
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Leaves
Bud-break in the case of the Tuliptree (Liriodendron tulipifera) is more of a peel. If you look closely here, you can see the first tiny leaves of the year. Also last year’s dried-out fruits, cone-like conglomerations of samaras with a central spike. Here’s another look at a bud with leaf:
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Nymphalis antiopa
My first butterfly of the year, the not unexpected Mourning Cloak, soaking up the sun in Green-Wood Cemetery today. The velvety wings dotted with blue/purple spots and edged in gilt are a most welcome sight.This may be our longest-lived species of butterfly, 10-11 months as an adult. They tuck themselves away somewhere to overwinter —…
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Stump Flies
If you look closely at yesterday’s pictures of recently stumped trees in Green-Wood, you’ll see a fly on one of them. Here are a few more. Saturday got to 60 degrees or so, but these photos were taken earlier in the day when it was perhaps 50. There didn’t seem to be much in the…
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Hearts of Wood
A number of trees in Green-Wood have been cut down. Looks like a contractor has come through and limbed up some and take out some others. There are a lot of stories to be read in the remaining stumps. This is an older cut. Somebody is using it as a butcher block for acorns.
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Red-tailed Two
Continuing our primer from the other day, we now present a mature Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis).Compared to that early sighting, this one look rather larger (even though it was higher up), making me think it was a female. Pairs of hawks should be in the bonding and mating stage in the city now. There are…
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Red-tailed One
Perched near the edge of Green-Wood Cemetery, a Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) surveys the scene. One of the classic field marks of this species is the vaguely V-shaped white splotching on the back. The band of darker splotches across the belly is another tell. (In the west, things get more complicated ~ there are some…
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Mushroom Monday
A warmer atmosphere has more moisture in it, meaning our winters are getting wetter. If it’s not cold, then that precipitation will be rain. And if there’s one thing that loves damp weather, it’s the fruiting bodies of fungi.
Backyard and Beyond 