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.”

  • Requiem For a Street Tree

    The London Plane across the street was trimmed of its dead branches last week. Here’s the before… with the cherry-picker already scouting out the situation. And after. Over the years, we’ve seen these dead branches in action: as Kestrel perch and Kestrel prey cache; as crow raiding-site (see Kestrel cache); Red-bellied Woodpecker haunt (and again);…

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  • Cormorant Fishing

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  • Oak Adjacents

    Several leafy twigs of a mature White Oak were on the ground last week so I picked them up while scouting for galls. I found these Noctuoidea caterpillars. Still working on narrowing these down even to genus, even on Bugguide, but what a great reminder of all the creatures that live off oaks! [Update: for…

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  • Acorns

    Pin Oak, Quercus palustris, is ubiquitous in NYC. The smallish acorns are all over the sidewalks now. (Palustris means swamp; the trees can take the compacted, anaerobic soils of tree pits.) I enjoy hearing them blonking atop cars this time of year. Other creatures enjoy them for other reasons. Bur Oak, Q. macrocarpa is unusual…

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  • Kestrels Continued

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  • Raptor Wednesday

    Yes, it’s time once again for American Kestrels on the old chapel at Green-Wood. The male is eating something. I suspect Common Green Darner.

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  • Pachypsylla

    Two millimeters long, under the microscope at 40x and 20x. Found the first on a curtain two weekends ago. Last Wednesday, when it got up to about 70F, there were a bunch of the window screen. And, being 2mm long, inside the screen. This is a psyllid, one of the creatures that induces galls in…

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  • Once Again

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  • At A Feeder

    At least four Tufted Titmice; two White-breasted Nuthatches; one Red-breasted Nuthatch; a Chipping Sparrow; two Downy Woodpeckers, male and female. A male Cardinal was in there at the end, too. Gleaning the bird-fall surplus on the ground, at least two White-throated Sparrows. These are still photos, calm amidst the swift jockeying, flushing, retreats and returns,…

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  • Angle-winged

    I abandoned Twitter yesterday when Kid Apartheid Musk and his Saudi executioner-funders took over that app. So here’s what I would have tweeted from yesterday’s walk: this magnificent Nyssa sylvatica. Early voting starts in New York state today. Vote against the threat to democracy, the environment, and our lives embodied by the fascist Republican Party.

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