insects
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Still Hanging On
In early November, I found four adult Two-spotted Ladybeetles (Adalia bipunctata). And without looking very hard. I just stood under the tree and looked up.
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Early Stages
This is some kind of Lacewing larva. It was found predating under the Catalpa leaves, where the ladybugs are still to be found, too, deep into October. On the rocks below the trees, a lady bug pupa.
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BFH Nest Down
Bald-faced hornets (Dolichovespula maculata) have been in the news recently. There seem to be a lot of their nests in Brooklyn: a bumper crop or just people noticing more of them? While some seem to think they are the Ebola of wasps, the wasps won’t bug you if you don’t bug them, or their nest.…
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The forest for the trees
A hike in the fall woods is always a sensual and philosophical experience.I was in a yellow light under oaks and beeches in an overcast sky, later speared through by shafts of sunlight.Yes, both the woods and I were speared. My eyes kept shifting from the whole to the parts. Walking over even relatively smooth…
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Dead Skeeter
Some of you, I know, enjoy my necropsy photographs from the human/mosquito war. Here’s a recent one. She either squeezed through the screens or made it past three doors.
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Pyrrharctia isabella
What is Autumn without a Wooly Bear crossing your path?
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Flying
Insect-summer is over. But last week I was in Prospect Park and saw masses of dragonflies over the Butterfly Meadow, in a patch of the Nethermead, and then in two clusters along the Long Meadow. They all seemed to be Common Green Darners, the large migrating species. And they were hunting on the wing. Gnats,…
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Drey
A large clump of leaves in the branches of a tree is often mistaken for a bird nest. It’s actually a drey, or squirrel nest. More specifically, it’s a summer nest. Winter will find them squirreled away in warmer, sturdier spots, like your attic. This Common Grackle (Quiscalus quiscula), helping to perpetuate the impression that…
Backyard and Beyond 