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.”

Twilight JBWR

Yesterday was the first anniversary of this blog. It’s been a lot of fun and I hope you’ve enjoyed yourselves, too. I want to thank all my regular readers, first time visitors, random googlers and members of the Academy for coming along for the ride.The birds fly into the West Pond of Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge as the sun descends into the west and JFK jets rise in the east. There are snow geese, Canada geese, brant, common and red-breasted mergansers, bufflehead, mallard, American black ducks, ruddy ducks, green-winged teal, northern shovelers, northern pintails, double-crested cormorant, and perhaps, out of range of my bins, could those be goldeneye? The gulls overhead, underlit by the sun, gleam. Two female northern harriers bounce on the air over the phragmites. A tree full of male red-wing blackbirds, spring’s infiltrators, burble with excitement.
The sun slips away. It’s windy, cold, exhilarating. Tomorrow, we’ll return to the warmth of Virgin Gorda….

mthew

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5 responses to “Twilight JBWR”

  1. Out Walking the Dog

    Happy Blogiversary, Backyard and Beyond. Out Walking the Dog loves to read you. Here’s to many more posts. Oh, and nice tree-framed skyline.

    Reply
    1. mthew

      Thank you, Out Walking The Dog. The feeling is mutual (B&B loves to read you, too).

      Reply
  2. Mark Wilkinson

    Congratulations on your anniversary B&B! Thanks to you and OWTD I’m always up to date with wildlife sightings and stories in NYC and always enjoy the read. Here’s to year two and beyond.
    Love the light in these pictures. Do you get any large roosting flocks of small birds, like these starlings in Somerset, UK?
    http://www.foxybiddy.com/page/starlingspectacular/3

    Reply
    1. mthew

      Thank you, Mark! Jamaica Bay, although beset by many environmental stresses, is one of NYC’s wildest placex, but its does not get any great flocks of song birds. Starlings — released in the New World, Central Park to be exact, by a nutter who thought all of the birds in Shakespeare should be represented over here — and red-winged black birds do mass in more agricultural regions of the U.S. I’ve seen them in Delmarva, the peninsula shared by Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia, on the eastern side of the Chesapeake Bay.

      Reply
  3. bowsprite

    beautiful!
    happy first year!

    Reply

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