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

  • A Snail’s Pace

  • Lichen Camo

  • Street Scene

  • Raptor Wednesday

    Fifth day of the new year, and the raptors haven’t stopped.

  • Mammals

    Sunday night it finally got cold, dropping twenty degrees from the mid-fifties temperatures we had during the first two days of the year. Before the onset of thermometer winter, these two raccoons were sleeping al fresco in a Sweetgum.

  • Organ Music

    Mud nest tubes made by the Organ-pipe Mud-daubing Wasp (Trypoxylon politum). I’ve been finding a lot of old ones, from previous years, the ones with holes in them. Tucked out of the rain, especially in the nooks and crannies of mausoleums in Green-Wood and the tunnels in Prospect, they can last a few years. I…

  • Peregrines

    I see Peregrines fairly frequently. But they’re usually two long avenue blocks away on the tall church. It’s much rarer to see one perched in Green-Wood. The metal top of St Michael’s RC church at 4th Avenue is a long-time perch and butcher’s block. The other day, one Peregrine was up here eating (probably pigeon)…

  • A New Year

  • Last Sunset of 2021

  • 2021, Part II

    Going through my blog, I noticed I never posted about this Ruby-throated Hummingbird nest here in Brooklyn this summer. Where the devil are my manners?