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.”

Fieldnotes

  • Japanese Maple 3

    Japanese Maple (Acer palmatum) in Green-Wood. (All three of these pictures were taken on the same day within a few moments of each other, under the same overcast light. No filtering or fiddling.)

    mthew

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  • Japanese Maple 2

    Japanese Maple (Acer palmatum) in Green-Wood. (All three of these pictures were taken on the same day within a few moments of each other, under the same overcast light. No filtering or fiddling.)

    mthew

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  • Japanese Maple 1

    Japanese Maple (Acer palmatum) in Green-Wood Cemetery. This is the first of three photos of separate trees located next to each other. All three pictures were taken on the same day within a few moments of each other, under the same overcast light. No filtering or fiddling.

    mthew

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  • Sassafras

    These two giants surprised me in Green-Wood recently. They’re Sassafrass (Sassafras albidum), usually seen as a rather smaller tree. I did a double-take or three. But there they were, the distinctive three leaf-shapes. And check out this bark, characteristic of old specimens: it is deeply, deeply furrowed, like the Southwestern canyon-lands.

    mthew

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  • Return of the Green-Wood Merlin

    I said recently that Merlins (Falco columbarius) were comparable in size to Blue Jays (Cyanocitta cristata). Ummmm, well…. That’s a Merlin on the upper left. The other birds are Jays. Up to seven were in the tree recently on a very gray day, harrying the falcon until it flew off. Wheeler’s Raptors of Eastern North…

    mthew

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  • Can’t Get Enough Kestrel?

    A week after spotting an American Kestrel male perching in Green-Wood I found another not so very far away. Or is this the very same bird? Mayhaps: they don’t have huge territories Check out the bird’s under and over grip on the tippy-top of the tree. And those false eye-spots on the back of the…

    mthew

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  • VLB in BBP

    Two of the gardeners at Brooklyn Bridge Park showed me the evidence of Viburnum Leaf Beetle that they were hunting down. The pits in the twig are egg cavities, dug into the tree by the mature beetle. The tiny larvae can just be seen. The destructive invasive beetle is rampant through most city parks, but…

    mthew

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  • Coop

    A Cooper’s Hawk (Accipiter cooperii) in Green-Wood on Saturday. This is an immature bird. An adult will have a russet-tinted breast and red eyes instead of yellow. From the back, against the light. Note that long tail, a characteristic of the Accipiters. While perched, the bird threw up this pellet. Once she — the bird…

    mthew

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  • Colors

    A White-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis). This bird had just lived up its name: wedging a seed into the bark of this tree, the bird hammered the seed with its chisel bill. Sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua) showing itself capable of standing up to this fall’s magnificent colors.Monk Parakeets (Myiopsitta monachus), excellent raptor food.Another colorful exotic, Japanese Maple…

    mthew

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  • Black-capped Chickadee

    Poecile atricapillus. On the side of a road in Hastings-on-Hudson. Perhaps hit by car?

    mthew

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