Rock flipping adventures

I live here.

(photo: Katy Silberger)
Where I actually live isn’t in the frame there, but you get the idea. It can be very pretty in its own way. To wit:

(photo: Andrew Mace)

It’s not the kind of place one expects to see a ton of wildlife, as it were. It took me a while to find a good spot for rock flipping. I am so fortunate to live fairly close to Central Park, so it was the obvious target. I had to get off the beaten path a little bit, because there weren’t a ton of rocks along the main paths and what rocks there were were extremely urine-smelling (this is something you can say about a lot of New York, sadly), so I was neither going to touch them nor was I convinced they made great habitat for anybody. I did eventually find this spot.

It’s sort of a riparian environment, so I figured there would be something good to see here. I saw ants and one earwig (eek!), though they scuttled away very quickly. Under one rock I found a whole bunch of these little buggers being sleepy and lazy. I think they’re garden centipedes? Sorry the photo is kinda blurry; this camera I’m currently borrowing is tricky.

I didn’t see much else. I think it may be that it’s been such a hot, dry summer; the underneaths of many of the rocks I overturned weren’t the slightest bit damp. Still, I saw one cool rock underside, and that was the object. Spotting a mollusk was also a goal but no luck there. I did wander around in the North Woods of the park, though, and saw some spots I don’t think I’ve ever come across before. It’s a nice reminder that Manhattan can look like this if you know where to look.

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