Nantucket
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American Copper
Lycaena phlaeas. Common name aside, the East Coast population of this small butterfly is thought to have been introduced from Europe during the colonial period, probably on the sheep sorrel its larva feeds on. It is notably associated with these invasive sorrels, and often found on disturbed habitats like roads and lawns, where I’ve photographed…
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On Nantucket
Going to Nantucket is like going two weeks back into the past. Spring comes a little later there, even in this year of early spring. Although just a touch more north of us here in NYC, the island is thirty miles off-shore and surrounded by an ocean holding onto its cold. The Japanese Flowering Cherries…
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The Hunt for Red Admiral
Red Admiral butterflies (Vanessa atalanta) are out in force this year, enough to be noticed by my radio station, WNYC. This is probably an East Coast phenomenon, as I was on Nantucket this weekend and saw many but photographed few. Being so fast, flighty, and flittery, butterflies are generally hard to photograph. Red Admirals are…
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Field Trip: Squam Swamp
This is a Nantucket Conservation Foundation property of 294 acres on the northeastern end of the island. The Foundation, which keeps a substantial portion of the island free of the monstrous SUV-scaled houses now built there, has produced an excellent paper interpretive guide to the mile-long trail. Hardwood forests are rare on Nantucket now, but…
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Bottle-brush
This Eastern Redcedar has mostly been taken over by a vine, possibly poison ivy, but I wasn’t going to get that close to find out.
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Teeth and Nails
The winter beach is often the last resting place of fish, fowl, and mammal. On my last walk along the north shore of Nantucket, I found a dead Harbor seal (Phoca vitulina). Such close-up encounters, albeit a bit queasy, can offer rare details. For instance, note the the animal’s human-scale teeth: Also, and this was…
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Wind-blown
These Eastern Redcedars bear the brunt of the wind. But it’s not just some of the highest wind velocities on the east coast, it’s all that deadly salt, too.
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Woven Nests
Probably the most common bird nest come across is the American Robin’s, which is big for a song bird’s, and characteristically made with a mud base and a lining of grasses. Of course, birds don’t want you, or any other predator, to find their nests, so the leafless season is best for discovering them. Of…
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A Cooper’s Strikes
Most of the time, hawks miss. In my years of birding, I’ve never seen an accipiter or falcon successfully take bird prey in the air. Until today. And from the passenger seat of a moving car, no less. Earlier, while walking, I saw a Cooper’s hawk zooming around in the strong winds we’re having here…
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Mortal Foe
Well, it seems it’s finally winter, at least for a day or two. That means cold, just like when I was a boy. Over the weekend we saw a turtle head peeking out of the Lake in Prospect Park. That’s no sign of winter! Two weeks ago, I was battling mosquitos in the tropics of…
Backyard and Beyond 