jholmes's Journal

Tina and I road our bikes from 151st and Broadway down to Union Square to the Green Market. We stopped at a largely native plants garden planted with a variety of milkweeds, bee balm, black-eyed Susan and others. This garden was located at 27th Street and Hudson River Park.

There were many Northern Golden Bumble Bees, which I found interesting since I had not seen them in other gardens in Manhattan. As I was watching, one of the Golden Bumble Bees left a flower and was apparently buzzing around another Golden, but on closer examination the second bee was being eaten by an immature mantis! The bee was about 1/3 eaten, but still struggling. The first bee watch and adjusted its position a couple times and got very close before leaving.

After visiting the Green Market and heading back north along the Hudson we stopped at an amazing garden in Hudson River Park at 91st Street. I spent about an hour circling the perimeter getting several new species for the summer. In addition to those photographed and posted here, I saw a female Cicada Killer Wasp which did not stop for a photo. There were lots of great nectar producers in this garden so there was a wide variety of pollinators in the area. I was at this spot mid afternoon.

An amazing August day, not the usual hot and humid, but perfect in the high 70s-low 80s, sunny and a slight breeze. Headed down Amsterdam Avenue and spotted a Cabbage White enjoying some nectar from a sedum planted in a tree pit. pretty much put away the camera from that point down to the Conservatory Garden on the east side of Central Park around 105th Street. It was a nice walk around the Meer lots of native bee action on the swamp milkweed around the Meer. They are so small and hard to ID from a photo that I did not pursue them too much.

The Conservatory Garden is one of my favorite places for observing insects. It is not as natural as the Meadow in the Ravine, but when you are traveling with friends, it is generally more enjoyable for them :) The North end of the garden is a "French" garden, fairly formal. It had been home to Cicada "Killer" Wasps in many previous years, but I did not notice any on this visit. Which is unfortunate they can add a bit of drama. There were many butterflies and native bees.

My favorite park of the garden is the southern end. There is a much higher diversity of of plants and many are great nectar producers, so lots of fun observing. There were many that I did not get good photos of to share, and there are some little wasps that I have no clue about their identification.

It was a beautiful day and I could have lingered all afternoon but had other destinations, so I had to move on.