Sunset Park
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The Riddle of the Trees
So the NYC Street Tree Map is now available on-line and it looks amazing. Excitedly, I went to my corner of Sunset Park, Brooklyn. Uh-oh. The trees right outside my window are Hackberries (Celtis), but they’re both mapped as Hawthorns (Crataegus). Leaves. The really distinctive bark. It so happened that I passed a pair of…
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Sunset Park Elm
I’ve been photographing this big American Elm in Sunset Park for the last year.The long shadows if not the temperature tell of the days drawing nearer. Today’s the first day of the end of daylight savings time, meaning an hour sooner sunset, and we’ve still a month and more to go to the shortest day.…
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Sunset Park Elm
Fall is coming! And about time, too! The state of the elm. From this southwesterly perspective, it is hanging onto the slope of the moraine with everything it has. Previous states of the elm.
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Raptor Wednesday
On a recent afternoon, I had the pleasure of experiencing the Brooklyn falcon trifecta. It all started in Green-Wood: the distinctive shape of one of the small falcons tearing through the air in the distance, met by the rough chorus of outraged Monk Parakeets stirred up by its cousin. (Yes, falcons are more closely related…
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Shelter From The Rain
On the edge of the storm, a beetle clings to the outside of the kitchen window.Slick wet glass, mind you. Last seen heading further up to the frame. Early October, Brooklyn. Should I submit this to bugguide.net to see who can identify it from this angle? Or would that be cruel? Actually, we have a…
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Scat Hill
Rat scat if I’m not mistaken. Scatologists, what say you? Found at the top of the taller of the two new hills on Governor’s Island. Seventy feet above sea-level according to the marker. A panorama from the height. In the distance from the left: Jersey City, Manhattan, Brooklyn. (Click for a larger version.) You can…
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View From The Moraine
A green lacewing (Chrysopidae) paused briefly on the window recently.
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Beewings
One the Megachile leaf-cutter bees. A nice look at the bee’s fore and hind wings. Hymenoptera, the “membrane-winged” insects (bees, wasps, and ants) and have four wings. Dragonflies and butterflies would surely agree with the Hymenoptera that four wings are the best, but flies probably wouldn’t. Flies (and mosquitoes) are in the order Diptera (“two-winged”):…
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Sunset Park Elm
Our mighty elm is looking a little worn-out after a long hot summer of chlorophyll. Man, baby carriage, trash can underneath for scale. There’s just a touch of color in a few leaves yet. Here’s the whole series of portraits of this tree. The cathedral branching.
Backyard and Beyond 