mammals
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Mammal Monday
I’ve been watching squirrels rush along mid-building parapets and window casements to get to this spot all winter. Thought it was a nest, and voila, four youngsters! Parent on the left in these pictures. I gather that there’s plastic covering a small A/C unit here. The outer lining, open at the top? Don’t know what…
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Didelphis virginiana
How sad to run across an opossum stiff with death and cold. This one was the size of a very large cat. I hope he or she was a great fount of progeny. The tail is finely haired. Magnificent and remarkable creatures with bad press. They snarl when cornered, they’re vicious in a cage. But…
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Bits and Pieces
Jawbones. On iNaturalist, someone thinks these are Brown Rat. The coin is an inch in diameter. Same coin, different jaw. I pulled out the incisor: rodent teeth keep growing. 6mm long claws extracted from a pellet. Owls swallow everything. I’ve seen our local American Kestrels choked down the entire legs of their bird prey, talons…
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Still More Squirrels
I don’t want anybody to get the impression that all the squirrels are being eaten. Ran into all these on Wednesday in a small patch of Green-Wood. In American Kestrel news: yesterday a female was seen from the windows here for the first time in months. She came to our attention because she was calling.…
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Mammal Monday
Directly above this very cautious squirrel was a A Red-tailed Hawk (and some obstreperous Blue Jays). The hawk had a very full crop. So digesting and chillaxing. In the same tree as the hawk, another squirrel.
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Out with the Year…
Not infrequently, a wanderer in Green-Wood will find piles gingko nuts at the base of trees. Or higher up trees, as in this example. Raccoons have been at work. Here’s another pile out on a big limb. And where there is poop, there are flies. I’ve really noticed the flies this fall: they can take…
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12th Month Insect
Diptera are the only things out and about now, and just barely. This fly was on the Dead Horse Bay beach the other day. A gnat landed on my nose yesterday as I walked down the street. Flies are hard to ID when they are not in hand. Out of a total of 80 iNaturalist…
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Gallish
Went on a walk last weekend in Central Park in honor of Alexander Von Humboldt and the late mycologist Gary Lincoff. We met at the Explorer’s Gate, next to the Humboldt bust. The baby vomit stench of ginkgo fruits, rotting and crushed on the sidewalk, deterred us not. The venerable American elm behind Alex reaches…
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Mammal Monday
Yes, it was hot this weekend. A little house-crazy, I ventured into Green-Wood early Saturday morning. My shirt was plastered to me in no time, and this in the shade before 9 a.m. But everybody’s got to eat. In my case, I need the sustenance of life, like for instance spotting this munching squirrel. And…
Backyard and Beyond 