New York Botanical Garden
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Monday Meadows
Open these up.For megapixels of wonder.And speak not to me of lawns.
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Cocktail Hour
Is this too much John Cheever-John Updike, drunken wasps getting it on? Above are Thread-waisted Wasps (Eremnophila aureonotata) mating on that pollinator-magnet mountain mint (Pycnanthemum). Like many wasps, the adults eat nectar, but feed their larvae flesh. (OK, now we’ve entered Stephen King territory) These provision their young with caterpillars. Blue-winged, a.k.a. Digger Wasp (Scolia…
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Snapper
Snapping Turtle (Chelydra serpentina), the smaller of two seen this weekend. Note the spotless shell. Compare with another snap seen two years ago in the Discovery Center pond. Much more growth on the shell of that younger specimen. The huge beastie I’ve seen in Prospect Park’s watercourse a few times over the years has also…
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Traces of the Ice Age
Don’t you just love these? These grooves are found along the path in the forest of the NYBG, and time and generations of feet have worn them down slightly. They’re glacial striations, gouged out by the rubble on the bottom the ice as it scraped across the hard surface rock. These can be found in…
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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).
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Tyrannus tyrannus
The Eastern Kingbird. What a binomial, eh?This one took a large bumblebee to a branch and battered it for a bit before gobbling it down.
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Great Spangled Fritillary
A name that should always be said in a W.C. Fields’ voice.Speyeria cybele.
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The Dragons Are Hunting
The shed exuvia of an Odonata. Dragon- and damselflies spend their larval stage underwater. These voraciously predatory nymphs climb up on reeds and other vertical structures, anchor themselves, and begin to break out and unfurl their wings, harden off, and then take to the air, leaving these ghostly husks behind.A male Eastern Amberwing (Perithemis tenera), our…
Backyard and Beyond 