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.”

  • Sap Lick!

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  • Mothy Monday

    Chickweed Geometer Moth/Haematopis grataria Lucerne Moth/Nomophila nearctica Common Tan Wave/Pleuroprucha insulsaria (tentative ID) Wedgling Moth/Galgula partita Green Cloverworm Moth/Hypena scabra Dogbane Saucrobotys Moth Saucrobotys futilalis larvae on Hemp Dogbane/Apocynum cannabinum Caenurgina genus (tentative) Snowy Urola Moth/Urola nivalis Ironweed Clearwing Moth/Carmenta bassiformis (tentative ID)

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  • Big Wasps

    If there’s one really annoying thing about insects, it’s that most of them are too small. The details of individuality get lost. But since the Eastern Cicada-killer Wasp/Sphecius speciosus is one of our biggest wasps, it’s easier to see pattern variations on them. That’s five individuals above. The other day I saw one sort of…

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  • Two Cicadas

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  • Iridescence

    Taracticus octopunctatus with bee prey. Spicebush Swallowtail/Papilio troilus Black Swallowtails/Papilio polyxenes Common Green June Beetle/Cotinis nitida. Four-toothed Mason Wasp/Monobia quadridens Great Black Digger Wasp/Sphex pensylvanicus Common Eastern Physocephala/Physocephala tibialis Blue Jay/Cyanocitta cristata

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  • Meadow Part II

    Seems like every Mourning Dove in Green-Wood is hanging out here. A walk-through results in multiple startle-flushes. This new meadow in Green-Wood is disliked by some it because some of the plants obscure the old headstones. (This is one of the old “public lots,” with older, smaller memorials.) As is usually the case, the complainers…

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  • Raptor Wednesday

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  • Meadow Part I

    First summer of a new meadow in Green-Wood. More on Thursday, after Raptor Wednesday.

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  • Unearthed, Reearthed

    Mediterranean Potter Wasp/Eumenes mediterraneus perched on a pebble gathering up a ball of dirt for a nest. And the source of this dirt? An Eastern Cicada-killer Wasp Sphecius speciosus nest I’d first noticed 9 days earlier.

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  • That Dirt Bank Again

    A return visit to a local patch of dirt. Here’s one of two Pseudomethoca frigida velvet ants seen. These are actually wasps: the females are wingless and race around on the ground. They are endoparasites, laying their eggs inside ground-nesting bee nests. That is, if they can get in. Here, two Lasioglossum genus bees wrestle…

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