Week 23 - Green-Wood Cemetery

Week 23 was a short week for me as I went out of town for several days. That said, there were few updates in the landscape to report. That's not to say that everything was unchanged. Nature is in a state of flux, so sometimes you just need to look a bit more closely to spot the changes.

I did see a couple of procrastinating migratory bird species this week; a Northern Waterthrush and a Willow Flycatcher, the latter has a small population which breeds along the coast.

Northern Waterthrush

Willow Flycatcher

Our only successful breeding pair of resident Red-tailed Hawks have a single, healthy nestling that, as of this writing, is moments away from leaving the nest. The Downy Woodpeckers in the cemetery have been busy feeding their young, with a family next to the Steinway mausoleum getting ready to fledge.

Nestling Red-tailed Hawk

Nestling Downy Woodpecker

The Linden trees are back for a second round of flowering. This time the small, yellow flowers of the Little-leaf Lindens are filling the air with an incredible, honey-like fragrance. In addition, the cemetery's Common Persimmons are now sporting inconspicuous, pale yellow blooms.

Little-leaf Linden

Common Persimmon

Within the sea of green grasses along the Hill of Graves are occasional tall stems of flowering Orchardgrass standing above the other meadow species.

Orchardgrass (Dactylis glomerata)

Finally, one of the fruiting plants I noticed last week is an introduced invasive vine: Bittersweet Nightshade. A member of the same family as our tomatoes, this fruit is highly toxic to humans. It is, however, an important fall and winter food source for birds.

Bittersweet Nightshade