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.”

November 2020

  • Autumn Meadowhawk

    Waited all through October for the sight of a Sympetrum vicinum. Three centimeters of fiery, late season dragonfly. Finally spotted one last Friday, when the temperature got into early 70s. Spotted at Sylvan Water in Green-Wood, the only one seen. Not many of these have been observed this fall in NYC, at least according to…

    mthew

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  • Pignut and Other Colors

    Your reds get talked about a lot during the fall, but let’s not forget the yellow of a pignut hickory. Same tree, a different day, and later sunlight. A bald cypress cultivar, I think. Northern red oak. Franklinia alatamaha. Not found in the wild since the early 19th century, all specimens today are cultivated. Named…

    mthew

  • The Eagle Has Taken Off

    I saw the Bald Eagle in the white oak twice this week. I guess the bird saw me, too. Eagle Power! The silver band is a federal marker. I didn’t see the more readily readable state band on the bird’s left foot, but I’m assuming this bird is marked R over 7. Some have dubbed…

    mthew

  • Beauty and Slime

    This was too high up, on a dead part of a big red oak, to get a better photo, but damn, isn’t it amazing? The Asian Beauty (Radulomyces copelandii) fungus is a recent introduction from Asia, with the first East Coast records in Massachusetts only from 2011. It seems to be moving fast. The Japanese…

    mthew

  • Falcon Twilight

    Last night, as sunset approached, I noticed something atop St. Michael’s at 4th Avenue and 42nd St. It was a Peregrine falcon. At the same time, I saw something on the closer large antenna at 5th and 40th: it was another Peregrine! Double trouble, indeed! But it got better. The antenna Peregrine flew off and…

    mthew

  • More Eagle

    This bird is just so majestic I’m going to put up more pictures. Sounds like the best electoral turnout since 1900, with 66%. So approximately one-third of the nation opposes democracy since they voted for someone who stated, in advance, that he doesn’t want all votes counted if they’re not for him. And wow, their…

    mthew

  • Raptor Wednesday Come Hell or High Water

    Well, well, well, look what I saw on Election Day. In George Orwell’s 1945 essay “Notes on Nationalism” he makes the point that “Nationalism is not to be confused with patriotism.” No fucking way that a bunch of eagle-killers get to be called “patriots.” This post was set up hours before polls closed Tuesday, hence…

    mthew

  • Emergency Nature

    The patch of red peaking out! The white patches on this one! Who says all birds (of a species) look the same? One more Golden-crowned Kinglet today from a patch of three four six, it was hard to tell. “Kinglet” for their crowns, but also, it seems to me when I see them come leap-flying…

    mthew

  • 11/3/20

    As this is a referendum on autocracy, I voted against fascism. People who vote for Trump after four years of Trump are voting for vicious, corrupt, irrational, monstrous authoritarianism. They are, through Fox-infected stupidity and/or white supremacist malignity, announcing themselves as fucking monsters enabling the dismemberment of American democracy. People who vote for a third…

    mthew

  • The Cache

    For days now, a Red-bellied Woodpecker has been heard in the London plane tree across the street. The distinctive “quirrr!” announces his bird. But he doesn’t stay long. I hustled to the window with the camera a couple of times before just staking out the situation to catch these images. The bird is caching acorns…

    mthew