The City Birder: Week 31 - Green-Wood Cemetery

Week 31 in Green-Wood Cemetery felt like the first real doldrums period of the year. Much of that seasonal stagnation can be blamed on some excessively oppressive heat and humidity over the past 7 days. Due to those conditions, I needed to get out early, spend only a couple of hours exploring, then return to my airconditioned home. Normally I don't mind the summer heat, but to put this in perspective, there have been public heath alerts nearly daily regarding heat and air quality. That said, here are some of my observations from July 29th through August 4th.

Until we see some fairly consistent North winds, the southbound birds have merely been trickling into the area. I spotted my first returning Eastern Phoebe of the season early in the week. It was still in the vicinity of the Hill of Graves as of Saturday. The only warblers I saw were Louisiana Waterthrush, Northern Waterthrush, Black-and-white Warbler, American Redstart, Yellow Warbler and Yellow-rumped Warbler. The black-and-white being the first I've seen so far this "fall". There are still a few noticeably young birds in the cemetery with several catbirds and Chipping Sparrows still relying on their parent's assistance. In addition, it appears that the Red-tailed Hawk parents have completely cutoff the free food supply to their offspring as I heard it whinning everytime I visited Green-Wood. On Friday it was particularly upset as a family of American Kestrels relentlessly harassed it.

Eastern Phoebe

Solitary Sandpiper

Juvenile Gray Catbird

Louisiana Waterthrush

Northern Waterthrush

Juvenile Red-tailed Hawk and American Kestrel

Mouse Garlic, Rough Blazing Star and Feverfew were in full bloom and attracting a lot of pollinators. The garlic at Cedar Dell was incredibly active with butterflies (mostly skippers), bees and wasps feeding on its abundant nectar.

Mouse Garlic (Allium angulosum 'Summer Beauty')

Rough Blazing Star (Liatris aspera)

Feverfew (Parthenium integrifolium)

Butterfly diversity and abundance continued to increase with a couple of first seasonal sightings for me. Monarchs continue to decline with the eastern butterflies seeing their second worse year yet. If you'd like to help the plight of this amazing species, I recommend starting here.

Monarch

Tawny-edged Skipper

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

Eastern Tailed Blue

Spicebush Swallowtail

Fiery Skipper

Still seeing lots of dragonflies, many migrating, a few mating and ovapositing on the ponds. There was a large uptick in both Spot-winged Gliders and Wandering Gliders, but by the end of the week many seemed to have moved on.

Wandering Glider

A favorite bee, the Golden Northern Bumblebee, is suddenly being seen in greater numbers, especially at the Mouse Garlic. I like this bee because it reminds me of a tiny teddy bear.

Golden Northern Bumblebee

The increase in the number of small skipper butterflies, as well as, other minuscule pollinators has been a windfall for some of the predatory species. Two that I observed last week were the Robber Fly and Hump-backed Beewolf.

Robber Fly with prey

Hump-backed Beewolf

One insect I wasn't happy to see was Japanese Beetle. This species of scarab beetle is introduced in North American and has few natural predators. I've been seeing them primarily on the primrose plants, where they will devastate the leaves. Thankfully, some birds will eat them and they are also preyed upon by Robber Flies and some spiders.

Japanese Beetle

We found a deceased cicada along Central Avenue during my walk yesterday. It's either a Linne's Cicada or Dog Day Cicada. From what I've read, the two species are extremely difficult to tell apart visually. Like some bird species, however, it's very easy to separate them by their songs. Check out this great website on cicada songs (and other insects) by Lang Elliotte and Wil Hershberger.

Linne's or Dog Day Cicada

I had a couple of interesting tree observations last week. The first is regarding the Katsura tree. In the fall, as its leaves begin to turn, it releases maltol into the air. To my nose, it smell like caramelizing sugar or cotton candy. It may only be the Dog Days of summer, but as I walked down Central Avenue last week I was suddenly hit with that amazing aroma. I quickly located the tree (only one Katsura at that spot) and stood downwind getting drunk on the sugary fumes. I don't know why it would be emitting maltol now, but if you are in the vicinity of Central Avenue, between Vale and Myrtle Paths, check it out. The second observation was of a pair of blooming Franklin Trees near Twilight Dell. Extinct in the wild, this native tree from Georgia now only exists as an ornamental. Check it out before it drops its flowers.

Katsura tree

Franklin Tree

There have been many inky cap mushrooms sprouting up around Green-Wood, possibly because of all the damp weather. Last week I watched a Chicken of the Woods blossoming at the base of a Red Oak along Oak-Leaf Avenue. Curious to see how large it gets over this week.