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.”

mthew

  • Golden-crowned

    Golden-crowned
  • Mushroom Monday

    Phlegmacium flavescentipes.

    Mushroom Monday
  • Coney Island of the Mind

    Fish Crows. Ring-billed Gull. American Herring Gull, and is that a fish head? Common Loon.

    Coney Island of the Mind
  • Scoter Saturday

    White-winged Scoter/Melanitta deglandi close to shore. And further out, Black Scoters/Melanitta americana.

    Scoter Saturday
  • Snail Notes

    Snails are hermaphroditic so perhaps it is not surprising that the German word for snail, Schnecke, was masculine in Middle High German but became feminine in Modern High German. Snail in German, French, and Latin can be slang for vulva. Hegel thought snails upset taxonomic order; he presumed they reproduced body parts like plants. There’s a…

    Snail Notes
  • More Ducks

    These give you a good sense of how small Bufflehead Ducks, and/or how big Mallards are. The same day the above were on Crescent Water, There was a female Ruddy on Valley Water, keeping on eye on threats from above.

    More Ducks
  • Raptor Wednesday

    The female seen regularly in Sunset Park. This time a Northern Mockingbird was raising a ruckus about her.

    Raptor Wednesday
  • Bufflehead Running Start

    Bufflehead Running Start
  • Brown Cows-of-the-Air

    There have been an usual number of Brown Pelicans/Pelecanus occidentalis between Coney Island and Breezy Point and across the bay towards Staten Island in the last month. The fishing is said to be very good…. On Saturday, I made my second trip to Coney Island to see them, and unlike the first time, voila!

    Brown Cows-of-the-Air
  • Skimmerathon

    Two and a half dozen Black Skimmers/Rynchops niger lingering at Coney Island amidst the gulls and pigeons. Flushed by a loose dog.

    Skimmerathon