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.”

  • 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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  • Baeolophus bicolor

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  • Fall’s Parasitic Wasps

    These are some of the big and bold ones, around an inch long. Plenty are rather smaller…

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  • Raptor Wednesday

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  • Pine Warbler

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  • Mammal Monday

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  • Theropods

    The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs by Steve Brusatte is a good introduction to recent dinosaur discoveries. Mining their own bones for calcium for eggs is another dinosaur trick you find in birds today. Something I didn’t know is that dinosaur (and bird) lungs are quite different from most other types of lungs. We…

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  • Thorny Goldenrod?

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