insects
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Cycles
If you’ve been following this blog a while, you’ve seen this before. Not this photo, not this example, but similar. For nature follows cycles, and so too does this blog. Pieces of the past summer’s Bald-faced hornet (Dolichovespula maculata) nests, now abandoned by the generation of 2012, get blown out of trees this time of…
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Darth Vader
Found this under a bed recently. Where, ahem, it had not been cleaned in a while.
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Interior Katydid
As if to reinforce the point to this blog — that inexhaustible nature is everywhere — what should I find on the inside of my building’s front door this morning? A katydid, with only five legs. I haven’t heard any katydids on the street in a while, but I have run across them before in…
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Trick
Those fake cobwebs some people insist on garbaging their homes with this time of year turn out to be as effective as real cobwebs in trapping dust, bits of leaves, and, as I noticed on Congress St. the other day, a dozen wasps.Vespula maculifrons, the Eastern Yellowjacket. Black antennae, remember, are good for IDing the…
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Four October Butterflies
On Friday at Fort Tilden, the sun was bright when I got there but a cold front moved in from the northwest as I stood atop the hawk watch platform. These were all seen while the sun was still bright.Monarchs (Danaus plexippus) predominated, still, floating along the coast towards the south. A sulphur, probably Clouded…
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High Gloss Lady
My “Year of the Ladybug” continues. Or, should I say, Year of the Aphids? Since it is the aphids, those little buggers, who have ushered in the ladies. This glossy creature is the Polished Lady Beetle, Cycloneda munda, a species new to me.Also known commonly as the Red Lady Beetle and the Immaculate — that…
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Prospect Park
The Upper Pool is just starting to blush with the coming of fall. A walk through the park yesterday. We saw: Wood Duck, Mallard, Red-tailed Hawk, Rock Pigeon, Mourning Dove, Chimney Swift, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker, Hairy Woodpecker, Northern Flicker, American Kestrel, Blue Jay, Black-capped Chickadee, Red-breasted Nuthatch, White-breasted Nuthatch, Brown Creeper, House Wren, Carolina…
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Early Fall
Yesterday morning around 10, it was under 60F and cloudy. The bumblebees were not quite warmed up. Some didn’t move at all, others were quite sluggish. Burly little things, with lots of muscle, which is one of the reasons they are one of the first flying bugs in the spring. They can warm themselves up…
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Mantids Take Brooklyn Bridge Park
I’ll be giving a tour for Brooklyn Bridge Park volunteers tomorrow. What will we see? Here are some of the things I’ve run into in the Park in the two years it has been open. And here’s the latest sighting:Chinese mantid, Tenodera aridifolia. Introduced to the U.S. in the late 19th century to go after…
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Grasshopper
Almost two inches long, and with bold chevrons on their hind femurs, the Differential Grasshoppers (Melanoplus differentialis) are out and about now and engaged in making little grasshoppers for the future. They are fans of the Polygonum smartweeds, which grow practically anywhere, which means you might stumble across one (grasshopper, plant) in the midst of…
Backyard and Beyond 