Photos starting with photo#7 show a comparison of male flowers with the female flowers. Male flowers have anthers held up by long stamens. These anthers will look yellowish reddish when fresh and with pollen covering them. I believe the anthers turn purple when the pollen is spent (I could be wrong about that, but the photos illustrate both). The female flowers have red tendril like styles. Photo 5 shows the peeled open red bud scales and clusters of female flowers, each with several styles.
Red maples are predominantly dioecious, meaning that a tree will have either male or female flowers. However, sometimes a tree may have both female and male flowers, ie monoecious.
The Red maple has a lot of plasticity in terms adapting to various environments. Typically, it's a bottomland species that likes moist soil. It's often found growing alongside Silver maple, American elm, Swamp white oak and Black ash. The last three species I don't see too much here in Queens, though. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen a Black ash here in NYC.
More info here:
https://www.nrs.fs.fed.us/fmg/nfmg/bl_hardwood/eco/spechar/maple_red.html
Forest floor
Forming large pillow over shoreline granite
Squorrosum? On creek margin but frozen
Open area of bog
Dense hummock with tightly packed rounded capitula. Branch leaves straight. Spreading branches are long down turned and white tipped. Stem leaves seen in last photo are triangular at the tip and no fimbriation(fringe) or notch. I think this is Sphagnum Capillifolium subspecies Capillifolium
In fen @ 1200m
True tree-hoppers with their offspring
Order: Hemiptera (true bugs, Schnabelkerfe)
Suborder: Auchenorrhyncha
Infraorder: Cicadomorpha (Rundkopfzikaden)
Superfamily: Membracoidea
Family: Membracidae (treehoppers, Buckelzirpen oder Buckelzikaden)
Genus: Hyposolyrium SCHMIDT, 1926
possibly: Hypsolyrium uncinatum (Stäl, 1869)
host plant (I think): Solanum betaceum
Indonesia, Central-Sulawesi, Tentena-Bomba: ca. 1800m asl., 14.05.2010; IMG_9985
Male Pachydiplax longipennis being eaten by Opheodrys aestivus
Like a lot of these predation shots I heard the irregular beat of frantic, chafing wings before locating the scene.
I was taken aback when I first realized what was happening. That quickly wore off though and I was on the ground trying to get as close as possible without disrupting or having any meaningful influence on the situation.
Two great predators. In the end the dasher broke free and clumsily flew off (though he was lucky there were birds looking for an easy catch). I can't say for sure whether or not I played any part in the snake not succeeding in this struggle. If it were venomous I think (though I don't know if venomous snakes spend their venom on dragonflies or if they specialize in more protein-rich options) the dasher would've been done for.
But, the snake maneuvering his jaws to clamp down on the dragonfly gave some room for escape--especially since his jaws were over the thorax and wings, which were already beating trying to escape.
Roadkill in dry-mesic upland deciduous forest.
Lifer! 3 foraging through the forest.
Shot in the late afternoon and the iridescence showing up.
This was quite beautiful. The smilax nearly completely covered a young pine. Centennial Trail at Bon Secour NWR.
Instagram: @registroanimal
Sítio Calango, zona rural de Jacareí, SP, Brasil.
Este é uma Seriema Jovem que foi anilhada com +/-28 dias de vida e monitorada com o auxilio dos usuários deste campus universitário. Todos os resultados estão disponíveis no artigo:
Alexandrino et al.. (2019). Large Terrestrial Bird Adapting Behavior in an Urbanized Zone. Animals, 9(6), 351. https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/9/6/351/htm
Brood II emergence in 2013.
On a forested trail. The sound was deafening!
One of the street trees on my block is a mature female gingko, and it makes numerous stinky fruit every year.
Here is one of the nuts that is sprouting right there on the soil of the tree pit. This happens every year without any human intervention.
I usually end up pulling up all of the seedlings, as the tree pit cannot support an entire forest of ginkgo.
Location is Jingli Hotel, as indicated on map. Note, however, that the hotel appears approximately 540 m farther to the ENE in the satellite photo.
We had a great day for this species and probably saw a dozen or more. They are powerful and large predators. Image 1 shows a male hovering briefly near a female. The male was following the female around and when she would perch he would hover nearby and attempt to mate, but she would take off. Finally she landed near me and I focused on her and the male hovered briefly and I got one shot before they took off again.
Published as Cirsium funkiae Ackerfield: http://www.fagro.edu.uy/~bioveg/downloads/C01_02_january2022_ackerfield.pdf
Growing on sloped soil from a fallen tree.