Monday, July 13, 2009

Esmerelda at Rockapulco
















This waterlogged beetle in the swarsh got airborne again when a lucky gust blew her from a volcanologist's fingertip. The loggy beetle was so large a nugget of a bug we saw her flying off into the distance for a surprisingly long time.

9 comments:

Matthew said...

Looks like a Cotinis nitida, the green June bug. Is Rockapulco in BK?

amarilla said...

Thanks very much for the antique name for the beetle, I wonder what it means. Rockapulco is at Rockaway and 95th.

Robin Morrison said...

Rockapulco. I love puns, but even I don't want to know.

foint

Brooklynnese for sumtin owanuddah?

Matthew said...

I was eavesdropping not so long ago on a bugman who waxed lyrically on the insects the wind blew up from further south on the beaches of the Rockaway Peninsula. Said all sorts of exotica were to be found...

Robin Morrison said...

You've inspired me to translate those mysteriously satisfying because mysterious final lines of that nabokov poem:

"Esmerelda, immer, immer."

Esmerelda meaning, of course, "emerald,green"; immer being German for "forever, always".

Ever-green. The poem was written in Ashland Oregon during the summer. Even in fall, Ashland is evergreen.

parysena

Martian geological term for long narrow shallow canyons where the surface has subsided over underground water canals.

amarilla said...

So I suppose that includes all the Riis park, Fort Tilden and Breezy Point beaches, MW. Have you been to the park at Breezy Point Tip? Is it really a good birding spot? I hope to get there sometime, hopefully later in the day than earlier.

There's nothing like evergreen, KL, thanks for the translation. Immer seems like an apt word for always for some reason.

Robin Morrison said...

immer, immer

ronspi

ROmany tribe

Matthew said...

Breezy Point does have its points. The gated community is weird, but the end itself is American land (Gateway unit); you can't park there during the summer w/o a fishing license.

amarilla said...

Hmmm. I wonder if that unfair rule winds up protecting some ground nests.