280 days of Urbpandemonium #64

If had my life to live over again, I might knuckle down and follow the science track to an entomology degree. I'd do my studies on long legged flies, maybe in Central America, to study their vast biodiversity, learn how they catch their tiny prey animals, observe their courtship--males display their long sexy legs to the females. Then I'd say with confidence that this is Condylostylus* sp., a common genus in North America with more than 30 species.

* "Knobbed column."

Baldie selfie

Here's a shot of a beautiful bald woman and the pudgy spider-lover she tolerates, taken at 3:00 p.m. for some reason.

280 days of Urbpandemonium #65

This adorable little dope was flitting around the yard in a panic. My old half deaf half blind dog Charlie was oblivious, but the bird was aware of me and was trying to escape. I went inside for a while so it could sort itself out. The next day we heard three of these things begging their parents for food, in the neighbors trees and bushes that overhang our yard.

If they are robust and fortunate, these Baltimore oriole Icterus galbula* chicks will spend the winter down in the neotropics somewhere. Bright orange and black males and yellower females probably look more in place at the edges of rainforests and coffee plantations than they do in the suburbs.

* "Small jaundiced bird"

280 days of Urbpandemonium #66

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280 days of Urbpandemonium #67

If you visited New England 200 years ago, you'd see rabbits dashing from thicket to bramble, surviving in the transitional areas, places where Native Americans or colonists, or wildfire, had cleared the land and new thorny growth was rebounding. This was the New England cottontail Sylvilagus transitionalis* and about a hundred years ago it began to become rather scarce.

At about that time, a related rabbit found just west of the area, in more open habitats, was introduced. The interloper was the eastern cottontail S. floradanus**, a rabbit with a range from the central states and Canada all the way to the north of South America. Besides New England, the eastern was introduced to the west coast, the Caribbean, and even Europe. Its larger eyes spot predators from across open areas, making it better adapted to the kind of habitat that dominates much of New England: wooded suburbs.


* Transitional wood rabbit

** Florida wood rabbit