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.”

  • Setophaga citrina

    The first of two flies this female Hooded Warbler caught and ate under a Yew while I watched. The second. Impressive catch. Unlike, say, a larval something like a caterpillar, an adult fly can, well, fly. Behind-the-scenes making-of documentaries of documentaries are popular nowadays. Here’s a look behind the magic of Backyard & Beyond: A…

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  • Birth Announcement

    If you, like me, have been on tenterhooks (I hope they’re tender) since we last checked in on the Great Horned Owl nest… That’s the parent on the right. (April 23rd from a long way away.) An arrival of another sort. Yesterday, May 6th, was our first day of Chimney Swifts for the year.

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  • Polypore

    Wowsa! Close-up of the pores in Northern Cinnabar Polypore/Trametes cinnabarina. (This one was already broken off.)

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  • Eastern Towhees

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  • Destroyer, separated

    If you look closely, you can see the eggs underneath the foamy, spongy covering Spongy Moths/Lymantria dispar coat their egg-masses with. These used to be known as Gypsy Moths, but the common name was changed a couple years ago for obvious reasons. They were introduced to the U.S. in 1869 by some dude who thought…

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  • Raptor Wednesday

    These are the infernal train yard lights my neighbors complain about. About three blocks away from the vast subway yard, they require blackout curtains to stop the glow. (We face a different direction, thankfully.) This light tower with a male American Kestrel atop it was on a distant part of the yard. Along with the…

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  • Late Afternoon

    A low-flying Great Egret about to go over 5th Avenue, presumably on the way to Sylvan Water.

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  • Spring Beauty Action, Part II

    I don’t know who this bee, but this bee sure is workin’. Another Margined Calligrapher Fly.

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  • Spring Beauty Activity, Part I

    Lots of Virginia Spring Beauties/Claytonia virginica, including some intensely pink ones. After a stormy night, with temps rising into the 60s, there was a little bit of pollination going on. An Andrena genus mining bee… is it the fabled Spring Beauty Miner? Stay tuned. Figure the pollen on this Margined Calligrapher Fly is Virginia Spring…

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  • Snailin’ USA

    Everybody’s gone snailin’/across the USA. Well, a dozen of us, anyway, gathered for last week’s Earth Day Snail Safari in conjunction with David Colosi’s exhibit Snaileidolia at Open Source Gallery. [Link includes a reading of David’s snail fiction and a intriguing globe-spanning discussion on Zoom.] Above is a Common Periwinkles (Littorina littorea) found by one of…

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