mammals
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Cling On
It was a very chilly day. FYI: There was such a demand for my Brooklyn Brainery Where the Wild Things Are NYC class that we’re doing it again on February 28th at 6:30.
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Oak Wilt
Damn it! I really wanted to start on a positive note, but the bad news just keeps coming. Oak wilt has been discovered in Brooklyn. This is a lethal fungal infection of oaks and other species, its spores spread by beetles. When I was in Green-Wood on Friday, I heard a chipper hard at work.…
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Douglas Squirrel
David Douglas did get the small, vocal Tamiasciurus douglasii named after him, both ways. We saw one at Ecola State Park and a few more at Hoyt Arboretum in Portland, where this one was photographed well enough to present to you, but mostly we heard them. They let you know whose woods these are… (Looks like…
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Woodchuck
Marmota monax keeps an eye on you.Yet another den! Do they keep moving around? This general area has been the home of at least one for a while, but I think this particular den is newish.Facing the sinking sun of another day.
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Scat Hill
Rat scat if I’m not mistaken. Scatologists, what say you? Found at the top of the taller of the two new hills on Governor’s Island. Seventy feet above sea-level according to the marker. A panorama from the height. In the distance from the left: Jersey City, Manhattan, Brooklyn. (Click for a larger version.) You can…
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The Trouble With Tibbles
Tibbles is right up there in the roll of famous cats, along with Hodge, who has a statue in Gough Square; Mrs. Chippy; and Unsinkable Sam, originally Oskar, who abruptly abandoned the Kriegsmarine for the Royal Navy and then proceeded to survive two more ships going down. Tibbles was the pet of Lyall the lighthouse keeper…
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You’ve Been Warned
This is a kousa dogwood of some variety, multi-trunked with interesting mottled bark. They say the fruit is edible. I tried one once. Meh. It was very woodsy.For some mammals, though, that’s not an issue. Raccoon scat, if I’m not mistaken.
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Doves on the Roof, Aloft If Not Aloof
On a glass roof. A not bad illustration of the anisodactyl pattern, the three toes forward/one back arrangement of some bird feet. Passerines, the song birds, also known as perching birds, have this layout. The members of order Passeriformes make up half of all bird species. Doves, however, even with the same toe-pattern, are members…
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Legion of Raccoons
Late afternoon in Green-Wood, a crusty old bandit walking like a old cat. Elsewhere: one of two young and a mother who were just crossing the street then they saw us. They climbed back up the tree they’d come down.The youngsters seemed very curious.
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Mammal Eyes
A young Grey Squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) in Green-Wood. You have to watch out for these: once, one started climbing up my leg, looking for a parent.Winter’s coming! (As hard as it is to imagine.) So there’s no time for paternity suits at the NYBG. Eastern Chipmunk (Tamias striatus).
Backyard and Beyond 