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

  • Blue-winged Wasp

    Putting a little extra sting into your Sunday! This handsome creature is a Blue-winged or Digger wasp (Scolia dubia). The paired yellow spots on the reddish orange abdomen are distinctive for identifying this species, at least around here (as far as I know). “Life style”? They dig into the ground in search of larvae of…

    mthew

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  • Second Magnolia

    There’s a tendency in some of these exotic magnolias to bloom again in late summer. Should be a few metaphors in this, wot?

    mthew

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  • Random But Intentional

    There are eight million stories in the naked city. Ok, these pictures come from a pair of cities, but… …you never know what you’ll see when you’re looking out for fellow travelers on this hurling space rock. For instance, this escaped parakeet, a Rosy-faced Lovebird, I guess, briefly perched on the balcony. (Photographed through the…

    mthew

  • Damselflies

    One of the Lestes genus spreadwing damselflies.Spotted in Sapsucker Woods. One of the differences between dragon and damselflies is that damselflies rest with their wings closed. Except of course for the spreadwings… I think it’s the Spotted (L. congener), but I’m not a 100% sure on that. I’d never seen it before. Spotted on the…

    mthew

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  • Latte Ducks

    These two ducklings, still with stubbs of wings, swam against the flow of tumbling Fall Creek to team up with their mother on another rock.This foam looks a little like the froth atop latte or one of those other coffee products. Good segue to this, then? Caffeine, like other drugs we take, passes through us…

    mthew

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  • Raptor Wednesday

    I’ve wrapped up the #BrooklynKestrels season on the pages of the Clapper Rail, the publication of the Brooklyn Bird Club. Check it, as the kids say, out.It’s a double-raptor issue.

    mthew

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  • Birds in the Rain

    Yes, the bird has caught a little fish here, one of several seen captured and swallowed with dispatch.This Great Blue Heron flew some thousand feet across Beebe Lake in Ithaca to chase away another Great Blue that had just flown in. I would have thought there was room enough for two.Baby flycatchers?!This Cedar Waxwing posing…

    mthew

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  • Gorges

    “Ithaca is Gorges” is awfully good branding. I thought the gorges that sliced away through shales and sandstones at the northern and southern edges of Cornell were gorgeous.Fall Creek in the rain during the morning. Most of this one is seen from above, on the Cayuga Trail. Only disconcerting thing: all the anti-suicide netting on…

    mthew

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  • Serpent Saturday

    The highly variable Garter Snake, Thamnophis sirtalis. Twelve sub-species are listed at EOP; my venerable 2nd ed of Peterson’s lists six, with three color variations for the Eastern (Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis). *** A co-worker from back in the day is making a sign-a-day to encourage voting. Give her site a visit. I wish I was…

    mthew

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  • Least Bittern III

    The first time I saw a Least Bittern was on Padre Island, Texas. It was a brief glimpse, the bird jumping from one clump of reeds to another. The second time was strange: the bird was high up in a tree in Prospect Park.Third time is a charm of a cliche, but what a sighting!…

    mthew

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