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

  • The Color of Elections

    “Freedom is in peril. Defend it will all your might.”

  • Oaks

    I assume you’re all voting tomorrow. Hopefully you’ll take friends and relatives along with you…

  • Tanka

    Crabapple blossoms, What do you think you’re doing, Out in November?Spring is irrepressible, A life-blooming metaphor.

  • The Tangled Tree

    Add some DNA from viruses, bacteria, chimpanzees, and, for some of us, Neanderthals, and pretty soon— well, ok, after a couple billion years — you have human beings. Let’s stress that plural for a second: we really are beings, our bodies covered inside and out with microbes. Some studies say we’re one-to-one bacterial to human…

  • Kestrels, As In Plural

    Well, well, well! Thursday morning, male and female American Kestrels perched on the building down the block.The male.The female.The male flew back and forth from the rail atop the bulkhead to this ailanthus several times. Both falcons disappeared for a while, then their calls returned us to the windows. They were circling each other overhead.…

  • Flickering

    Northern Flicker, yellow-shafted edition of the east. They have mostly passed through in migration by now, but a couple of weeks ago, the city was full of them.This Colaptes auratus male — females lack the black mustache marks — excreted while perched up here. Most of these birds are pretty skittish, bolting quickly at the…

  • Return of the King

    I almost walked into this Golden-crowned Kinglet. So I just stood there and took photographs as it foraged around me, sometimes near and sometimes far. That’s my boot.Green-Wood was still flush with these yesterday, and now more Ruby-cronwend are around as well. I’ve never seen so many kinglets!

  • Double Crested Cormorant Eve

    Finishing touches on tonight’s costume. Now, if only I can find some fish…

  • The Legend of Green-Wood

    Few know of the Headless Swamp Sparrow that haunts Green-Wood, and fewer still want to know. Yet this is the night this spectre flies through the air, frightening maidservants, who probably shouldn’t be out anyway, and owls, who should. Don’t say you weren’t warned.

  • Catching Up

    One post a day, occasionally two, is hardly enough to keep track. Here then is a miscellany of things I’ve seen in recent months which haven’t made it to these pages yet. Smeared Dagger Moth caterpillar in the Bronx.American Bittern in Prospect Park, seen on the same day as that Purple Gallinule that made all…