Big Bird Interlude

The geese from Canada I knew. The other big bird is new to me. A juvenile Yellow-crowned Night Heron is what I'm thinking.

Spicebush Swallowtail at Summersweet!!!

Looks like I was in the right place at the right time to catch a glimpse of this suh-weet Spicebush Swallowtail.

Chasing Schmetterlings

At least once every summer you should find yourself spending part of the morning or afternoon chasing schmetterlings (which someone recently told me is the German word for butterflies). I was stalking some schmetterlings over by a bottlebrush buckeye yesterday afternoon, but only managed to capture this one Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, which I will say is male after consulting my favorite insect ID site bugguide.net, with the camera.

Come January

 

Come January and the community garden at Floyd Bennett Field mostly belongs to the birds.

 

Sometimes the snow.

 

 

And what lingers from last season's blooms. 

Back to Life

back to reality as the song goes. I spend my days watching plants, weeding and paying some mind to visitors and this is enough for me now.

ZigZag Zipper OrbWeaver

Not exactly its scientific name,but that zig zag zipper that seems to echo that spider's markings is the way I'll probably know it for what it is the next time I run across it. It's common enough, but I had to go to my favorite bug source to find out its proper name. Habitat? Gardens and old fields, but in this case a garden in an old airfield.

Following The Path of a Pipeline (Take Three)

Turkey Buzzard at Floyd Bennett Field, March last year

I don't take the most direct route from my home to the community garden at Floyd Bennett field and that's because I usually go by bicycle. And one of the things you quickly learn when travelling by bicycle is that it's often wise to add on mileage in order to take the safest most scenic route. So I'm pretty comfortable with the idea of detouring and I know that's there's usually more than one or two ways to get to where you need to be and that the most obvious route isn't always the best choice. Perhaps that's a useful metaphor to use when following the path of a new pipeline. Perhaps there's another route to take to cleaner energy than the one that involves transporting gas that's being extracted in a manner that's increasingly being called into question and challenged and maybe there's a better route for a new pipeline and metering and regulation station than through the part of Brooklyn and Queens that contains the National Gateway Recreational Area.

For instance, in an early draft report that Williams was required to file with FERC demonstrating the need for this project they stated, "While solar energy has been identified as a viable form of renewable energy and initiatives such as ConEd’s Pilot Program indicate a push for its use, the inherent issues with constructing solar facilities in the New York City area (i.e. tall buildings requiring cranes to install parts) preclude this form of renewable energy from providing the energy needed to supply the demand area targeted by the Project.", but the demand for this project is Queens and Brooklyn not Manhattan. These are areas that include large tracts of mostly suburban areas and much smaller buildings than in Manhattan. It's perhaps arguable that solar energy both in private homes, and industrial sites in these areas is more likely to be feasible and attainable than in the more developed Manhattan.

As for the route, I'm not a birder, but any serious birder will tell you that Floyd Bennett Field and Jacob Riis beach are on the list of places to go to see birds in New York City. And I'm not an entomologist but I know that even the small patches of potentilla along the bikepath near Floyd Bennett provide habitat for pollinators that you probably don't see in abundance in other parts of the city. Floyd Bennett field is not a wildlife reserve like it's neighbor across the bay, but it is managed in a way that supports the many species of birds that use it on their migrations along the Atlantic flyway.

This particular part of New York City may be overlooked by a lot of New Yorkers, but that doesn't mean that it isn't important for all kinds of reasons. And some of its most important users cannot vote. Nearby Jamaica Bay and Breezy Point are designated Significant Coast Fish and Wildlife Areas and there's no short list of species they support. Not all of New York City's coastal resources are ranked in the same way. Some, like Brooklyn's Navy Yard, are in fact recommended for industrial use as Significant Maritime and Industrial areas.


Syrphid fly on Potentilla, bike path alongside Floyd Bennett Field

The Ladybug in the News

Harmonia axyridis (methinks primarily from the M shaped markings on the pronotum. Not native.)

I check out the insects to charm my bug-loving nephew and I check out the insects because I am curious to know what pollinators are visiting my garden, but I also pay attention because it's important to know both your beneficials and your pests when you are gardening organically. And now that I know that the nine-spotted ladybug has recently been spotted on Eastern Long Island, there's also the possibility of seeing this native species so rarely seen in the last three decades to keep me interested.

Walk to an Old Kettle Pond

What we think is a Praying mantis egg sack, Forest Park

On our bike ride home from Queen's Botanical Garden yesterday, we stopped at a restored Kettle Pond in Forest Park for a quick walk. We've passed the area on hundreds of bike rides through the park but never noticed an open gate leading into the area. We poked around for a bit and discovered a praying mantis egg sack attached to a drying aster flower stalk, (or at least some kind of composite flower) plenty of ducks we don't know the names of and at least one potentially invasive species inhabiting the water. All things considered, not a bad pitstop for a bit of studying.

Yellow Floating Heart (Nymphoides peltata). Pretty, but not necessarily a good thing outside of its native habitat. Another common name is the Fringed Water Lily because of the fringes visible on its five petals.

On Fennel

Late Instar of Black Swallowtail caterpillar

It's been an amazing few weeks for butterfly watching down at the community garden, today's caterpillar sightings included. If I'm lucky, I might get the chance to watch a chrysalis overwinter on some fennel volunteers (a pretty successful weed) in my garden or nearby. Today I saw a few different instars of the Black Swallowtail Butterfly in the caterpillar stage of its life cycle. While its unseasonably warm right now, I'm thinking that this must be the last generation of this species before our first frost here in New York. We'll see.

An earlier instar, methinks

Wandering South For the Winter

Monarch Butterfly (Danaus plexippus)

The wanderers are wandering. (Apparently Monarchs are called Wanderers in Australia) If you were lucky and were outside in a place with good habitat for them the last few days, you may have seen them in numbers. Last month we had a work day down at the community garden and one of the tasks at hand was deadheading the butterfly bushes for rebloom. The timing was right it seems. They are covered in blooms again now and I couldn't count the number of monarchs I saw perched on them as if roosting yesterday. The Common Buckeyes (Junonia coenia) must be on the move too. I had 5 or 6 in my garden at one time and I've never seen that many in such a small space at one time before.

On Sedum, in a Garden in Brooklyn

Bees on sedum, Brooklyn Botanic

Last year in mid-September, it was the honey bee I noticed at Brooklyn Botanic digging on the sedum. This year, the bee again, but so much more. For instance, the wasp below. At this time of year, those things that are blooming, (for me garlic chives, goldenrod, aster and verbena bonariensis, among a few others) are swarming with hungry insects and it's an excellent time to get to know a few.

Below is a thread-waisted wasp, perhaps Prionyx parkeri. It feeds on nectar as an adult, but it is also a hunter of grasshoppers, which it feeds to its larvae. Now I know that grasshoppers are sweet-looking and that my nephew probably loves them, but it is also an herbivore. So this wasp, a predator of a plant-eater is a good guy in the garden.

Thread-waisted wasp on sedum, Floyd Bennett Field, Brooklyn

A Garden Lesson Relearned and Something New

The lesson relearned today is that it only takes cutting through a few thick branches on a fallen tree, armed with only a saw and elbow grease, before the sound of a power tool becomes a delightful tune. That noise becomes the hum and the beat of the work getting done faster. Our community garden was mostly intact after the storm, but we lost a few willows.

The something new is a butterfly. Leminitis arthemis astyanax or a Red-spotted Purple, which rolls off the tongue just a hair easier. And guess what it likes for dinner along with some other decidious trees? You know it, willows.

Red-spotted Purple butterfly at Floyd Bennett Field, Brooklyn

Garden Visitors This Week in Brooklyn

Does the mark on the underside of the wing resemble a comma or a question mark? Yay for butterflies in the genus Polygonia named after punctuation.

And a bee, possibly in the Megachile, always welcome to spend some time in the garden.

Work and the Garden

Some days you work hard in the garden and some days you sit around in the shade chatting half the day away on the topics of motorcycles, bicycles, sweet country roads and gnarly accidents, only to spend the rest of the day trying to capture your garden's pollinators with your phone camera. Yesterday, it was the latter for me and now I have a new pollinator to identify. I don't feel too bad about the slacking because the day before last was spent cleaning out and doing maintenance on someone else's yard, and because it's the days that I spend watching quietly in my own garden or talking with my neighbors that I learn and remember the most. I have the feeling that I will see this pollinator again. It seems to me that I have repeat visitors that must be nesting nearby. Right now I think it may be a kind of Cuckoo Bee that is wasplike in appearance, but further research is a must.

Luckily, I don't have to do any work identifying the butterfly below. It's a common buckeye, just like a tree I know and love. That Verbena bonariansis is at it again. Attracting pollinators like mad. Someday I may be sorry that I planted it and let it go to seed, but this year it wins first prize in the category of best garden volunteer.

While the Bergamot Bloomed Wild

we went out for a bike ride. Along roads in Putnam and Dutchess and New York counties farther north we found Wild Bergamot blooming in large patches. But closer to the city limits in Westchester County, where these pictures were taken, we passed it too. I've never seen Monarda fistulosa (Wild Bergamot) blooming wild off the side of a road in Brooklyn, but that doesn't mean I never will. It is native to the area and most of the United States, so there is always the hope.

Update: Over at 66 Square Feet, Marie has a lovely picture of Wild Bergamot planted at the new Brooklyn Bridge Park. Just another reason to love some of these newest parks, the plant choices.

Hemaris sp. (Hummingbird or ClearWing Moth) feeding on Wild Bergamot, New York

Something cultivated

Not.


Cultivated.

And some things not from travels today. (Hudson to Saratoga) There's slow food. This is slow travel. Two wheels and what's roadside for entertainment. There's enough to see to fill the day and then some.

Not.

Nine Seconds with a Mason Wasp and Monarda punctata in the Garden

A few days ago, I was at Brooklyn Botanic in the heat and watched as a bumblebee made its way round the Horsemint (Monarda punctata) in the Herb Garden, stopping at each individual flower and methodically moving on to the next. Later, I thought how it was the perfect opportunity to try out the camcorder on my new phone and I'd missed it. But I got lucky at my own garden yesterday, only not with a bee this time, but with a wasp. A new one for me. The ID I'm gonna go with is Monobia quadridens, a Mason Wasp in the same family as Yellowjackets, Hornets and Paper wasps. It's usually seen in open habitats with flowers (in the Eastern and Southern United States), which sounds just about right for the community garden at Floyd Bennett. Because I took the video I noticed the white markings on the head, which I missed just watching it, so I might even be right in calling this wasp a male.

And so here it is below, my first video and first attempt with the phone's camcorder. It isn't National Geographic and I didn't quite get the video to sync properly, but I think my bug-loving nephew will dig it.




That punctata is something else. I'd plant it again and again just for the pollinator show, but I'd also get those amazing flowers.

Things Passed Along the Way

I garden in an abandoned airport in New York City with a little slice carved out for a thriving community garden and my bicycle is my transport to this slice of heaven. Yesterday, these are a few things I passed along the way:

A syprhid fly, a great masquerader. I swear I see more flies on flowers than bees, but lately all the species I see, whether fly, bee or moth, look like they're sporting cool sunglasses. It is New York City afterall, maybe they feel the pressure to be cool or maybe it's just part of their disguise.

Queen Anne's Lace, the current dominant weedflower (wildflower, I guess it's how you define it) lining the sides of the roads and something that's a getting a lot closer to prairie than pavement at old Floyd Bennett airfield.

And Linaria vulgaris (Butter and Eggs), a first time identification for me. I've seen it in books before and must have been riding blindly past it for more years than I'd like to admit now, but this year I not only noticed it, but I had a name to give it. And that's just one of the reasons I'm happy that I started growing vegetables and paying attention to plants. Now I have a name for the things I pass along the way while riding my bicycle. It's downright orienting.

Yesterday's Pollinator: The Hummingbird moths are back in Brooklyn

Hemaris moth on Butterfly Bush, Floyd Bennett Field

It's about a month earlier than when I first saw them last year and this year they look like they're wearing sunglasses. For more info on this genus of moth in North America go here. Its caterpillar stage looks similar to a tomato hornworm, but is not a feeder on the solanaceae family as far as I know. The adult moths however love the Butterfly Bush for sure. You have to love a moth that masquerades as both a bee and a bird.