mammals
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Persimmon Bandit
Yesterday’s pictured Persimmons (Diospyros virginiana) were not quite ripe. Here’s another: Looks ripe, but it’s still pretty hard. And they really have to be smushy soft to eat. Then they are perfumed and delicious. But bite too soon and you’ll get a mouthful of astringent tannins that you’ll rue all day long. Bleagh! Funny thing,…
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Groundcoverhogs
I was surprised to see one of the best birding spots in Green-Wood Cemetery shaved down to the bone recently. This was an impenetrable thicket along the flank of the hill overlooking the Sylvan Water, perfect for songbirds and woodchuck. Two woodchuck dens are exposed here now, but then most of the cemetery’s dens are…
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The Way of All Flesh
The other day I wondered what our Common Ravens are eating. They are greatly attracted to carrion; but how much carrion is found in New York City? This young Raccoon was gone the next day: presumably staff cleaned it away. The natural process of decomposition had already begun. Scavenger wasps and flies that lay their…
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Brooklyn: It’s Not Just for Hipsters
A parent and young Woodchuck/Groundhog (Marmota monax). Here’s the youngster, perhaps 2/3rds the size of the adult, who is presumably the mother as males visit burrows to mate but don’t stay around. Both animals were mowing through the grasses, then this one found a nut or fruit. They are eating-machines this time of year, fattening…
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In Da Bronx
Franklinia in bloom. What a scrumptious flower! And the bees agree. (All of today’s trees are descendants from seeds collected by William Bartram in the 1760s. The plant is unknown in the wild.) On the mammal front, Cottontail and Chipmunk and Gray Squirrel.In addition to the frog, a Garter Snake crossed our path, and a…
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Strange Cries in the Night
The other day, I woke up at 4:44 a.m. to a weird sound in the backyard. It was just about time for the local Northern Cardinal to start up with his “what-cheers,” the regular crack-of-dawn soundtrack around here since way back in late winter, but this was nothing I’ve ever heard before and if it…
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Squirrel in the Garbage
Some may find this a textbook case of cute, not to mention the adaptability of some animals to live off of our garbage, but all this processed fat and sugar can’t be very good for the animal. After all, just because you like to eat something doesn’t mean it’s good for you, as many of…
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Rodentia
There’s a debate around here about which of our rodent friends this young’un is. There were at least ten of them strung out along about thirty feet of paved path in Prospect Park recently, most of them with their eyes still closed, some not moving, others scurrying regardless of their eyelids. I don’t know what…
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Some Brooklyn Mammals
Squirrel sunning. Raccoon snoozing. Chipmunk being very still.Woodchuck being elusive. Check out the ground-hogging here on this slope: a duplex! The animal was peeking out of the nearer, top, hole, but vanished into the burrow before I could turn on my cameraSquirrel eating a… wait a minute, that’s a green-dyed Easter egg, more than a…
Backyard and Beyond 