Prospect Park
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Prospect Park in the Rain
Lullwater Bridge, sea of duckweed.Gall on witch-hazel Green heron, Butorides virescens, a park nester, and Black-crowned night heron, Nycticorax nycticorax, in the Lullwater.A young cottontail rabbit, Sylvilagus floridanus. Silver spotted skipper, Epargyreus clarus, in the coneflowers behind the Boathouse. In the same pollinator-friendly area, one of the most handsome of hymenoptera, a Golden Northern bumble…
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Arches
It does us good to remind ourselves that Prospect Park is a synthesis of the natural and the unnatural. The park is a highly engineered production, with drainage tiles laid underneath the Long Meadow, and fire hydrants in the middle of the Midwood, and the old reservoir built into Lookout Hill.Yesterday, the delightful Christopher Gray,…
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American Chestnut Check
With the trees in Prospect Park fully and lushly leafed, providing blessed shade, I thought I would check in on the American chestnuts there. When last we looked, the little leaves had only just emerged. This is what they look like now, 7-8″ long. The chestnut’s species name is dentata, which makes sense when you…
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In Prospect Park
A walk in Prospect Park never fails to turn up something exciting in the animal/vegetable/mineral kingdoms, even if I’m paying more attention to the conversation. When the conversation is with NYC Wildflower Week’s Mariellé Anzelone, there’s plenty to learn. For instance, I think I can now actually name the two flowers pictured here. That’s one…
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Painted
A painted turtle on a rock in the Upper Pool in Prospect Park stands out from its red-eared slider companions.
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Colors of Spring
Redbud. Orange fungus. American robin blue. Grey squirrel (black variant) & magnolia. Burnt orange fungus. Black dog, having a hell of a time trying to get out of the Lullwater.
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Hot Spot
This part of the Ambergill in Prospect Park has become a hot spot for watching birds bathe. I saw my first indigo buntings of the season here this week, and many other species are coming in to dip and shake those tail feathers, including all manner of orioles and warblers. The shallow pools on the…
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Sulphur
A female orange sulphur butterfly, Colias eurytheme, I think, and not a female clouded sulphur, C. philodice, because, although these species are quite similar, this one looks just like the example in Kaufman’s Field Guide to Butterflies of North America. Complicating matters, these two species can hybridize.
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Where the buffalo roam
From an old school spring-rolled wall map that looked like it dated to the mid-1960s, seen in a loft on Washington Avenue in Wallabout on the Clinton Hill House Tour this past Sunday. The American buffalo, actually a bison, once did roam in the eastern woodlands, along with their megafauna cousins.
Backyard and Beyond 