Open these up.
For megapixels of wonder.
And speak not to me of lawns.
Posts Tagged 'New York Botanical Garden'
Monday Meadows
Published October 17, 2016 Fieldnotes 4 CommentsTags: Bronx, flowers, New York Botanical Garden, plants
Cocktail Hour
Published September 3, 2016 Fieldnotes 1 CommentTags: Bronx, insects, invertebrates, New York Botanical Garden, wasps
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 dubia) with their distinctive yellow dots on red-orange abdomen. These are all over the city; I walked by a swarm in the middle of a front yard in Park Slope recently. The females dig burrows in search of beetle larvae to feed their young; Green June Bugs and invasive Japanese Beetles are favored.
Snapper
Published August 24, 2016 Fieldnotes 7 CommentsTags: Bronx, New York Botanical Garden, turtles
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 evinced a spotless shell, which I attribute to chorine in the water (yes, it’s tap water). Here’s a little one in the Prospect Pools. Here’s a tiny one I found crossing the road a few years ago in Massachusetts.
Shell length here 6-7″ long. Love the dinosaur thorns on the tail.
Traces of the Ice Age
Published August 23, 2016 Fieldnotes Leave a CommentTags: Bronx, Geology, New York Botanical Garden
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 Central Park, too. But not here in the home borough, which is all glacial deposit–made up, come to think of it, with some of that Bronx rock.
Mammal Eyes
Published August 10, 2016 Fieldnotes Leave a CommentTags: Green-Wood, mammals, New York Botanical Garden
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).
Tyrannus tyrannus
Published August 4, 2016 Fieldnotes Leave a CommentTags: birding, birds, New York Botanical Garden
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.
Busy as…
Published July 28, 2016 Fieldnotes 1 CommentTags: bees, Bronx, insects, New York Botanical Garden
Great Spangled Fritillary
Published July 27, 2016 Fieldnotes Leave a CommentTags: butterflies, insects, invertebrates, New York Botanical Garden
A name that should always be said in a W.C. Fields’ voice.
Speyeria cybele.
Beebalm
Published July 25, 2016 Fieldnotes Leave a CommentTags: Bronx, flowers, New York Botanical Garden, plants
And balm for your Monday.
The Dragons Are Hunting
Published July 21, 2016 Fieldnotes Leave a CommentTags: Bronx, dragonflies, New York Botanical Garden, Odonata
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 smallest dragonfly. Some damselfly species are actually longer. 
A male Eastern Pondhawk (Erythemis simplicicollis), I think; the tell-tale wing markings are obscure here and I’m rusty…
Backyard and Beyond 