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

    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
  • Mammal Monday on Tuesday

    Right on the horse trail in front of me…

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    Mammal Monday on Tuesday
  • Monarch Monday

    Feeding on burdock. This one is on a white-flowered cultivar of Swamp Milkweed. And, same butterfly, whatever this is…

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  • Eastern Kingbird

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    Eastern Kingbird
  • Big Beetles

    Female and male Reddish-brown Stag Beetles/Lucanus capreolus showing up at the BBC’s bug expo in Prospect Park. There were a couple males: one landed on this guy and hung around a while… The next day, I found some Broad-necked Root Borers/Prionus laticollis making more of themselves. Note how much smaller the male is but how…

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    Big Beetles
  • Squash Vine Borer

    One of our most elaborate day-flying moths: Eichlinia curcurbitae is a clearwing with waspy attitude. As the common name, in the title, suggests, the larvae feed inside stalks of various things, including cultivated squash, zucchini, and pumpkin.

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    Squash Vine Borer
  • Raptor Wednesday

    Not much on the raptor front this past week. I heard this one announce herself before she landed. They’re often helpful that way. I heard American Kestrels at Machate Circle at the south end of Prospect Park and then again on 6th Avenue and the teens, but try as I might I could not see…

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  • Clear Cutting A Pollinator Paradise

    Two Julys ago I came across this narrow strip in Bush Terminal Park planted with Narrowleaf Mountain Mint/Pycnanthemum tenuifolium. And it was massively alive with insects: bees, wasps, flies, butterflies, etc. Especially wasps: I recorded 22 different species of wasp here over two summer seasons. A few were species I’d not seen much or at…

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    Clear Cutting A Pollinator Paradise
  • Pollen Hunters

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    Pollen Hunters