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.”

  • Raptor Wednesday

    I was eating a sandwich standing up by the kitchen window when suddenly a young Bald Eagle flew into my view followed by a crow. They were closer than the building across the street, right over 6th Avenue and at my 4th floor eye-level! Hurrying to clean my hand and grab my camera, I got…

    See more

    Raptor Wednesday

  • What Gall!

    Like cotton-candy splashed with raspberry juice, Woolly Catkin Gall Wasp/Callirhytis quercusoperator bunches up the flowers of a Northern Red Oak. Meanwhile, on a Scarlet Oak, it’s mostly white. These are created by tiny wasps that take control of the plant to induce this unique growth on the catkins. The wasp larvae grow up inside, eating…

    See more

    What Gall!

  • Colors

    See more

    Colors

  • Walk in the Woods

    North of the city… old farm fields abutting isolated old growth. Wild Sarsaparilla. Polypody ferns above the reach of deer. Two-leaved Toothwort? Lycogala, Wolfs Milk. Dwarf Ginseng. Common Brown Cup? Lots of Skunk Cabbage.

    See more

    Walk in the Woods

  • More Warblers

    Northern Yellow (male). Black and White. Blackpoll. American Redstart (female). Black-throated Green (male).

    See more

    More Warblers

  • Raven Drive-By

    “As easy as photographing Ravens from the backseat of a car” could be a saying around the Cathedral of St. John. These are three of the five nestlings at this surprisingly visible nest. Does it get any more Goth? Meanwhile, here in Brooklyn I fear my smoke stack nest has failed. I haven’t seen a…

    See more

  • Return of the Chimney Swifts

    And the return of the challenge of capturing their swift aerial grace.

    See more

  • Raptor Wednesday

    Red-tailed Hawk nest… seems to be listing on the port side. Two male Kestrels tangling over territory. After they had separated. One of two Osprey flying over Sylvan Water recently. From across the East River, a view of parent in the Peregrine nest box at 55 Water Street. One youngster is in there as well,…

    See more

    Raptor Wednesday

  • Swallows

    Half dozen Barn Swallows on my Sunday BBC walk in a very chilly Green-Wood.

    See more

    Swallows

  • T.U.I

    This art project has another name, but I like to think of it as the Tomb of the Unknown Invertebrates. The tumulus on the right was made by burying a collection of very large tree trunk sections that were cut down over the years due to disease and storm damage. These were piled up in…

    See more