Week 32 - Green-Wood Cemetery

Week 32 saw another stretch of rainy days (with ocassional thunderstorms), which limited my time exploring the cemetery. I did manage to get out a few times, so have some observation from August 5th through the 11th.

Starting with the birds, I've noticed some of the locally breeding species are growing up an heading out on their own. Immature Chipping Sparrows are forming small flocks and foraging together. On Saturday I stumbled on a fairly large flock in the grass along Lawn Avenue. It was interesting to note that there were only two adult sparrows within a flock of about 20 individuals.

Immature Chipping Sparrows

Young Brown-headed Cowbirds were also seen forming flocks. Cowbirds are raised by other species and are typically seen being fed by their surrogate parents shortly after fledging. As teenagers, it appears that they now recognize other Brown-headed Cowbirds and are flocking together.

Immature Brown-headed Cowbird

Another immature species I've been seeing more frequently is Great Blue Heron. Locally they nest on islands in and around New York Harbor. There have been 2 to 4 young Great Blues, as well as, an immature Black-crowned Night-Heron fishing around the cemetery of late.

Immature Great Blue Heron

I missed the window for seeing Brown Thrasher chicks this year, but have been seeing a few immature individuals striking out on their own.

Young Brown Thrasher

An immature Cooper's Hawk has been terrorizing the birds around the cemetery. I don't know if this is an individual that was hatched locally or just an early migrant from farther north.

Immature Cooper's Hawk

The only change in south-bound migrants that I noticed last week was an increase in Blue-gray Gnatcatchers and Black-and-white Warblers. The latter seen in greater abundance.

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

Black-and-white Warbler

I also stumbled on an Ovenbird in the dark understory of Pine Hill. This warbler, which seems to prefer walking to flying, is usually seen a bit later in the migration. Guess he's in a hurry to get to Central American.

Ovenbird

In the world of lepidoptera, Fiery Skippers were seen in greater abundance, but just barely. I discovered what I thought were butterfly eggs on a Dogbane leaf at Winter Walk. A little research (and scanning recent photos) revealed them to be Dogbane Tiger Moth eggs. This incredible moth is unique in that it can mimic the clicks of bats to avoid becoming dinner. Another moth that is fairly common, but I've never seen in Green-Wood Cemetery, is the Primrose Moth. I finally found one last week trying to stay camouflaged within a Primrose flower.

Dogbane Tiger Moth eggs

Dogbane Tiger Moth

Primrose Moth

I photographed two flowering plants last week that I still haven't identified. One is a grass, the other is a small ground cover. If you know, just post it in the comments. Thanks.

Bluestem grass sp. (?)

Thymus sp. (?)

One of my all time favorite trees is dropping ripe fruit now. Just don't stand under it. The Black Walnut's fruit doesn't look like what one might expect. In addition, they have a wonderful, citrus-like aroma. The squirrels love them and you can hear them from yards away as they gnaw through the nearly indestructible shell.

Black Walnuts

All the rain this week stimulated some fungi to emerge. My mushroom identification skills are seriously lacking, so if you feel like adding an ID in the comments, I'd be much obliged.

Chicken of the Woods

?

?

?

Finally, here are a couple of insects that caught my attention last week. The first is what I would have called a Daddy-Long-legs Spider, but now I'm not so sure, as that name has been used for several different species. Possibly best to just call it a Pholcidae species. There were lots of them hatching out along the edges of windows and doorways of several mausoleums. The second is a tiny wasp spotted by Jim on my walk yesterday. To give you an idea how tiny it is, whenever I'd look away, then look back, I'd think it flew off. I'm guessing it was about 10mm in length. The "stinger" is actually an ovipositor for depositing its eggs. Some wasps use the long, narrow ovipositor to place their eggs deep within rotting wood. This individual was hanging out on a pile of cut tree trunks. The best I've been able to ascertain is that it is a type of Braconid Wasp, of which there are thousands of species.

Unidentified Spider

Braconid Wasp sp.