Prospect Park
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Eristalis tenax
An early flying Common Drone Fly (Eristalis tenax). An introduced species. A bee mimic. Their flight season is long, from mid-March to mid-November, but this was the only one seen this day a week ago. *** Spring’s solace is dependent upon the winter, the bright awakening from cold and dormancy, the “green fuse” lit amidst…
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Witches’ Broom
A hackberry tree, Celtis occidentalis. Notice the clumpiness in the canopy? A slightly closer view of one fo the clumps. (They were all out of hand’s reach.) This is witches’ broom, a gall-like growth of branches sprouting in multiples. Hackberry is particularly susceptible. In this case, it seems to be caused by a combination of…
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Raptor Wednesday
Cooper’s Hawk near the bird feeders. But, as you can see from that bulging crop, already full. Juvenile. As this bird ages, the chest will transform into russet bars. The eyes get oranger and redder with age, too. The bird was perched at eye-level about 20 feet off a path. After someone walked by, without…
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Weekend Birds
Two pairs of Wood Ducks on the Lullwater. Male Belted Kingfisher above them. Have there been Kingfishers in both Green-Wood and Prospect all winter? When the light hits a Common (ha!) Grackle just right, look out! White-breasted Nuthatch. Pied-bill Grebe. Some Red-winged Blackbirds are back, and, more importantly, they are making noise. Mallard and Ring-necked…
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Hedge Apple
For years I have read that Osage Orange (Maclura pomifera) is also known as hedge apple and that it was often used as natural fencing, a living hedge as well as the source of very long lasting fence posts. I’ve never quite understood how this would work since the specimens I see are usually stately…
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Phoebe Again
The day after spotting an Eastern Phoebe in Green-Wood, I saw one in Prospect Park.Traditionally, one of the first migratory birds to show up here in the spring. This means they’re not coming from very far away. And as it gets warmer, some of them aren’t even leaving. This one made a dive down to…
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American Coot
Those toes, though. Looks like some serration in the upper jaw… And is this a tongue? This bird, and a few others, were on terra firms because somebody was feeding them. And it looks like the feeders were not spreading bread, which is actually quite bad for waterfowl. Yes, the time-honored tradition of throwing bread…
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Bracket Fungus
Cracked Cap Polyphore is so intimately associated with black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia) that the fungus’s binomial memorializes it: Phellinus robiniae. Hard to find the tree without the fungus. Right next to this black locust is another, and it also sprouts some of these shelf-like fungal growths. N.B.: both of these locusts are still alive.
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When Doves Sit
Mourning Doves: one of our earliest local — that is, non-migratory — nesters. Their rudimentary stick nests can be tucked into trees or your windowsill. Here’s another pair on our fire escape recently. One or two has been showing up there or on the roofline a lot lately. (These were photographed though window and screen.)There’s…
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Dogs of Prospect, Again
I used to spend so much time in Prospect Park! It’s farther away now, but that’s not the reason I’m there so infrequently now. Half a dozen Red-winged Blackbirds were burbling with Spring there the other day. A Song Sparrow was singing, tree buds were clearly on the edge of bursting, mosses waved their tiny…
Backyard and Beyond 