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.”

  • Foraging

    There were four or five female Red-winged Blackbirds in this blooming Eastern Cottonwood. Well, it certainly does look delicious. These are the anthers, and yes, they were shedding pollen.

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  • Here They Come

    Louisiana Waterthrush Palm Warbler Yellow-rumped Warbler Yellow-rumped Warbler Pine Warbler Swamp Sparrow Chipping Sparrow Brown Creeper Carolina Wren

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  • Wood Duck Wink

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  • Winged Reproductives

    Some American Winter Ants/Prenolepis imparis attempting to reproduce. The female is much, much larger than the males. Two or three came down to the ground with her, but only one got to connect: Once her nuptial flight is done, she sheds her wings and goes back underground. The males, called drones, will die soon after…

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  • More Flower Interactions

    Though perched on a Red Deadnettle/Lamium purpureum, this Black-shouldered Drone Fly/Eristalis dimidiata is covered in what I think is Dandelion/Taraxacum pollen. Another Black-shouldered on the same patch of Dandelions. Narrow-headed Marsh Fly/Helophilus fasciatus on the same Dandelions. Flesh fly/Sarcophaginae. Look at how pollen-y these field ants are! Pale Field Ants/Formica pallidefulva In Lesser Celandine/Ficaria verna.…

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  • Breaking: Bittern!

    Ten days ago, an American Bittern touched down besides Crescent Water in Green-Wood. I wasn’t there. Today, I was about to enter the 5th Avenue tunnel when a car pulled up and a guy named Chris asked me if I’d seen the Bittern he’d been alerted to. I hadn’t and hadn’t known to look until…

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  • Raptor Wednesday

    The wing-gap Red-tail has a blue band that seems to read 10 over A. (I’ve submitted details to the Bird Banding Lab…) With sticks for the nest. Which could use a renovation. The mate, I presume the female, in the nest. She was trying to break off some twigs in a nearby tree as well.

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  • Chickadee in Magnolia

    While Magnolias certainly are showy, they’re not particularly pollinator-friendly. As some of the oldest flowering plants, they actually pre-date bees, butterflies, and moths. Beetles and flies are attracted to their flowers, and it’s these older insects who pollinate them. However, I’ve never seen much evidence of any insects in the flowers. Most of the magnolias…

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  • Feathers

    Bathing is really important for birds, but the problem is where. From the blog command center, we see birds bathing in roof puddles and what are obviously backed-up gutters. A pond seems like a good possibility, but this one is walled in: the drop off is deep. This Red-tailed Hawk was long considering strategy here.…

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  • New Book

    Highly recommended. Jared Farmer’s Elderflora is unexpectedly dedicated “To the caretakers, living and dead, of Green-Wood Cemetery.” He notes elsewhere in the book that he began to outline the book in Brooklyn, so one has to assume he wandered among Green-Wood’s vales and dales when he lived here. There’s another Brooklyn connection: Edmund Schulman, of…

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