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

    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 in there as well, according…

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    Raptor Wednesday

  • Swallows

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

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    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 tumuli 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…

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  • Anti-Earth Day*

    All your favorite brands. With “nutrition facts.” Complete with digestivo. And after-meal dental care. *Which is pretty much every day here on planet Earth.

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    Anti-Earth Day*

  • High Gloss

    Poison Ivy/Toxicodendron radicans Virginia Creeper/Parthenocissus quinquefolia Black Tupelo/Nyssa sylvatica Waxy coatings on recently emerged leaves. (The red coloration is defensive against strong sunlight on the baby leaves.)

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    High Gloss

  • On the Hair Bun of Justice

    A Peregrine on the statue of Justice atop Brooklyn Borough Hall. Ten years ago, I saw a similar perch and have been glancing up there ever since on my infrequent visits to the area. A friend who is also a serious Peregrine tracker captured a similar photo a few weeks ago. This may be the…

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    On the Hair Bun of Justice

  • Bees

    We had a couple days of temperatures in the 80s, exciting all the critters, but then things plummeted into overnight 30s. Here’s a small bee clutching a baby oak leaf on a cool morning. Here’s another sucking up some rays on a leaf. But getting back to the hot days: These are all solitary-nesting bees,…

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    Bees

  • Raptor Wednesday

    A pair of Peregrines flying together over Green-Wood recently. Another day, over the same patch, there was fierce little boomerang chase that I first thought was two American Kestrels. But it was the Merlin above and this male Kestrel: After he’d defended his territory. And another Osprey sighting… .

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    Raptor Wednesday

  • Slime

    The charmingly named Dog Vomit Slime Mold/Fuligo septica. Of the order Myxomycetes, not a fungus but an amoeboid protista. More here.

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  • Self-portrait as 2/3rds of a Pin Oak

    A cross-section of mature Pin Oak in the new Green-House at Green-Wood exhibition space. There’s a classroom in this new facility, and Molly will be presenting Wildflowers of Green-Wood there on May 9th. On June 6th, I’ll be giving my Beyond the Sting presentation there.

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