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.”

  • Filial Cannibalism

    Not burying the lede here on Mammal Monday. Gruesomeness ahead. I rarely see any of Green-Wood’s Striped Skunk/Mephitis mephitis population alive, but I sure smell ’em. This one, however, was boldly out in full daylight. And giving birth. She proceeded to eat the afterbirth. The baby, however, did not look like it was moving. At…

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    Filial Cannibalism

  • Return of the Tropic Birds

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    Return of the Tropic Birds

  • First Monarch

    This year the return of the Monarch Butterflies was signified for me by the discover of this egg on a Common Milkweed leaf during my Bugging Out walk on May 16. What luck!

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    First Monarch

  • Green Herons

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    Green Herons

  • Oriole Nest, Continued

    Two days after first noticing this Baltimore Oriole weaving her nest, I find she now has a hammock-like structure. Two days after that, it looks complete, the sack ready for eggs.

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  • Raptor Wednesday

    Nest 2 male just after taking a morning bath. There should be nestlings by now in the nest across the street from this perch. The same day, I ran into a Merlin. This is the first one I’ve ever seen in May. I wonder if this one is breeding locally? That would be news. Unlike…

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  • Weaver

    Baltimore Oriole gathering nesting material… … flying it to tree… … and beginning to weave her nest together.

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    Weaver

  • Inlandlubbers

    There were three Solitary Sandpipers on Dell Water recently. That’s a lot around here. Meanwhile, over at Sylvan Water: There was a solitary Spotted Sandpiper. And then, a day or two later, both Spotted and Solitary forging in the Dell Water murk.

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    Inlandlubbers

  • Another Fossil Hoard

    Rocks on the western edges of Brooklyn were mostly piled there by people to harden the shore. These rocks are from elsewhere, upstate I believe. They aren’t the tumbled erratic deposits of the glaciers. And some of them are littered with the remains of ancient seas.

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  • Caterpillar

    There are a number of caterpillars that are camouflaged as twigs, and when disturbed will pose like so. This one was eating in the low-hanging branches of a Pin Oak. This has been identified as a Toothed Phigalia Moth/Phigalia denticulata. I await confirmation of that. Today’s 10:30 Bugging Out in Green-Wood still has spaces (until…

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    Caterpillar