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On Jamaica Bay
Aboard the Golden Sunset out of Sheepshead Bay with the American Littoral Society’s Jamaica Bay Ecology Cruise. Looking across Jo Co’s Marsh towards You Know Where, which is about nine miles away as...
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Patriotism
The very red eye of an adult Eastern Towhee feeding its noisy, grey fledgling, well into a thicket but visible through binoculars, a caterpillar meal. A Cormorant sanding on the beach with its lower...
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The Grossly Ironic Visitor Center
A post in honor of Le quatorze juillet: One might think that conservation and conservatism have much in common, but not in this country, where conservatism is a perverse amalgam of the defense of...
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Friends In Need
The city and federal government are teaming up to work on Jamaica Bay together. Note especially this graf: “The new partnership also calls for the creation of a conservancy or friends group dedicated...
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No pipeline in Jamaica Bay
There is a petition against the plan to put a natural gas pipeline through Gateway National Recreation Area, with a large metering facility at Floyd Bennett Field. These kinds of things do not belong...
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Far Southern Queens
Yellow Queen Honey from Greenpoint. To the Honey Festival at Beach 96th and the Boardwalk on the Rockaway Peninsula yesterday, where the beach was swarming with Black Saddlebags dragonflies. Like...
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Jamaica Bay and Colombia
One of the male ospreys who breeds in Jamaica Bay was fitted with a GPS tracker this migration season. The bird is now “wintering” in Colombia. I put wintering in quotes because although migratory...
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Dead Horse Bay
Yellow-rumped warblers and Green Darner dragonflies before we got to the landfill edge.One of two Royal Terns, Thalasseus maximus, both with bands on their left legs. Not a commonly sighted bird in the...
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Sandy’s Effects, Continued
Nothing remains the same; this is the lesson of the earth. And it is particularly the lesson of humans on earth, having reached a stage where we are transforming the planet in unprecedented ways....
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Tree Sparrows
American Tree Sparrows (Spizella arborea). They breed in the tundra, and visit us during winter. These were seen at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge. Rufus-caps and sides, white bars on the wing, and a dark...
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Painted Skimmer
Flying gold at Big John’s Pond: a Painted Skimmer (Libellula semifasciata).
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Three More Osprey
Three young Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) bracketed by their parents at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refugee last week. They are on the verge of flying, and what flights! Soon, if they survive the hurdles of...
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Everywhere You Look
Found in the salad spinner after washing some organic lettuce. A Histeridae family beetle, also known as hisser or clown beetles, even though they don’t wear much makeup. They eat the larvae of flies.A...
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Hermits
I believe these are Eastern Mud Snails (Ilyanassa obsoleta), which look like rocks until you look closer. There are quite a few of them in Jamaica Bay. And some of them were moving much too quickly....
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House Wren
Troglodytes aedon, the House Wren. Don’t think I’ve so noticed or appreciated the yellow of the lower part of the bill before.Hard to miss when they’re singing, characteristically from an open,...
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Barn Swallow and Others
Finding a swallow isn’t so hard, but finding one taking a breather sure is.Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica) breed in various places in the city; this female was at Bush Terminal, so I’d be willing to bet...
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Gateways
Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia) absolutely owning the place.There are a good number of Songs nesting at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, which is part of Gateway National Recreation Area.Another was...
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Solstice
The sun will rise to its highest point in the sky today here in the northern hemisphere, meaning you will cast your shortest shadow of the year. Look at those miniature suns at the edge of the path…...
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That Yellow Crown
Let’s get a little closer, shall we…?There is definitely some yellow in the Yellow-Crowned Night Heron’s crown.We’d see it better if the sun wasn’t so bright. Because I could hardly have been closer: I...
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