Backyard and Beyond

Starting out from Brooklyn, an amateur naturalist explores our world.

As John Burroughs said, “The place to observe nature is where you are.”

  • Sign

    The leafcutter bees have gone to town with this shrubby Carpinus. Looks like a couple or more species have been cutting out circles and ovals of leaves to line their nests. I’ve never seen so much of this on one plant before. The plant must have what the bees want: good chemistry for the defense…

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  • Beetles

    This Spined Oak Borer was dead in my building’s stairwell. Check out these eyes.

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    Beetles

  • Slime

    Yellow Carnival Candy Slime/Heterotrichia abvelata Arcyria genus. Collaria arcyrionema.

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  • Nesting

    On July 13th, I spotted a Catbird building a nest. Last minute additions on July 15th.

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    Nesting

  • Monarch Monday

    One of at least five eggs on this patch of young Common Milkweed in Green-Wood. Early instar caterpillar on Common Milkweed at Floyd Bennett Field. A couple of adults on the blazing stars at Arverne East Nature Preserve. And one over the beach.

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    Monarch Monday

  • Kingbirds!

    A family of at least four Eastern Kingbirds, although I could only get three of them in one shot. One of the hungry youngsters… … was being stuffed with unripened mulberries.

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    Kingbirds!

  • Corn-ithian

    The heads of the columns at the Litchfield Villa, once the home of real estate baron E.C. Litchfield, are decorated with corn cobs instead of acanthus leaves. Alexander Jackson Davis, one of the pre-eminent architects of the day, designed this Italianate pile, which was completed in 1857. The rest of the brick building probably looked…

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  • National Moth Week

    As it happens, the UV light is attracting more than moths.

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    National Moth Week

  • More Kestrel

    On July 19th, with one sibling already fledged, there were still two females in the Chinatown nest. Here’s dad again. He is notably spotless. (Something he didn’t pass on to his male offspring.)

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    More Kestrel

  • Raptor Wednesday

    More than a month after I saw my first American Kestrel fledglings, there were three nestlings in this Chinatown cornice cavity on July 15th. They were raring to go! On the morning of Juy 19th, one of them, the only male, was out and about. Here he is with dad in the background. The proud…

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    Raptor Wednesday