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.”

  • 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…

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    What Gall!

  • Colors

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    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.

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    Walk in the Woods

  • More Warblers

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

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    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…

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  • Return of the Chimney Swifts

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

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  • 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,…

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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 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…

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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*