Spotted Cucumber Beetle, Diabrotica undecimpunctata
Brooklyn Botanic Garden, 2007-10-14
These colorful, ladybug-sized beetles can be major crop pests. This is the second one I’ve seen in the area. The first was in Prospect Park a couple of months ago, though I didn’t recognize that one at the time.
Great Egret, Ardea alba
Jackson Park, Chicago, Illinois, 2007-07-28
Painted Lady, Vanessa cardui
Prospect Park, 2007-10-14
I went back to Metrotech early this morning before work to see if the Connecticut Warbler was still around and it was (though once again the first sighting was a false alarm caused by a female Common Yellowthroat.) This time I brought my camera with me. The light wasn’t great, the bird was moving fast when it was visible, and I don’t have a clue about how to adjust the various wheels, knobs, and buttons to account for all this. Nonetheless I did manage one half-decent, clearly identifiable photo of the bird.
I’ve gotten a lot of life birds in Prospect Park, Central Park, Jamaica Bay, and other sites around New York City; but despite working there for ten years, yesterday is the first time I got one in downtown Brooklyn, right in the middle of Metrotech. A Connecticut Warbler, the most elusive of our local warblers, was flitting around in some shrubbery right outside of Rogers Hall at Polytechnic University where I teach.
No pictures yet, but it looks a lot like a female Common Yellowthroat, one of which was also present just to confuse things. However the Connecticut Warbler has a more distinct eye ring and much more yellow all the way down its chest to the undertail coverts, not just on its throat. It usually has a hooded look to it, though that wasn’t as apparent on this individual, apparently a first winter female. Still the yellow was missing from the throat, exactly where you’d expect to find it on the Yellowthroat. This individual was also quite a bit fatter and rounder than the Yellowthroat.
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Sachem Skipper, Atalopedes campestris
Floyd Bennett Field, 2007-09-23
