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

    There are likely multiple mouths to feed in the nest now, and their appetites are voracious. Another lizard joins the feast. The next day, on the lookout again. Fledging should be during the first week of June. That timing sounds good for the lone 55 Water Street falconet. (May 19th: it got hot awfully quick,…

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    Raptor Wednesday

  • Cosmopolitan

    And not just because they are so debonair. Nycticorax nyticorax, the Black-crowned Night Heron, is found in many places around the world. This one was in Central Park. The binomial translates as a doubling of “night raven,” perhaps because of their ravenish kwak/quark call.

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    Cosmopolitan

  • 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