Allison C. Meier

Allison C. Meier

Brooklyn
Aug
03
A monarch butterfly opens its wings while feeding from milkweed flowers, a fire hydrant looms in the background.

Milkweed Blooms Draw Monarchs

On a hill of former trash, monarch butterflies find a haven.
3 min read
Jul
27
A thick streak of lightning quivers between the top of the Empire State Building and the heavens above Manhattan's skyline.

Summer Lightning Strikes the Empire State Building

During a thunderstorm, the 1,454-foot tall Empire State Building often channels heaven’s fury.
3 min read
Jul
20
A lizard clings to a wooden fence rail.

Lizards Bask In a Haven of Their Own Making

New York City’s only state park preserve exists thanks to a lizard once released as snake food.
3 min read
Jul
07
Specks of firefly illumination pepper the grassy expanse of a cemetery at sunset.

Fireflies in Multitudes Signal Their Desires

As the sun sets on the warmest nights of summer the air becomes alive with blinking lights.
2 min read
Jun
23
A hand holds a plucked ripe mulberry (a blackberry-esque fruit) in front of a leafy mulberry tree.

The Urban Mulberry Harvest

A great urban harvest is underway for the birds, and those humans who join in the feast.
2 min read
Jun
08
Red and white roses sprawl over a front garden fence in front of row houses.

Stop and Smell the Stoop Roses

In front yards by brownstones, peeking through wrought iron fences, and climbing trellises against apartment buildings... the roses are opening.
2 min read
Jun
02
A hand holds up an ornate, tulip-like flower, still attached to a broad leaf. A tuliptree towers in the background.

The Flowering of New York’s Great Old Ones

Tuliptrees are the city’s living elders, growing taller than the other trees, surviving for centuries as other beings live and die in generations around them.
3 min read
May
19
A tree with trumpet-shaped purple flowers dominates the foreground. Behind, a B train passes on exposed tracks.

Invasive Trees Enchant with Regal Blooms

Paulownias grew fast and ferociously, a quality that made them prized until their persistent proliferation was revealed.
2 min read
May
12
A particularly cute puffball of a shorebird with a tiny beak and big eyes patrols the Rockaway sands.

Piping Plovers On the Beach

Some of the city’s tiniest annual visitors have arrived to enjoy our shores, but they face formidable challenges.
3 min read
Apr
29
Red and yellow striped tulips dominate the frame. A park fountain and tall buildings loom in the background.

The Great Tulip Bloom

While the early Dutch colonists were establishing their small settlement at the southern tip of Manhattan, the frenzy for propagating tulips in Holland was resulting in a multitude of showy colors and shapes.
3 min read