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.”

  • Recently Spotted:

    FYI: The Empire State Pollinator Native Pollinator Survey 2017-2021 is out. From the executive summary: “We found that, using conservative criteria, 38% of New York’s native pollinators (of our focal taxa only) are at risk of extirpation from NY. In the worst-case scenario, as much as 60% of the native insect pollinator fauna may be…

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  • Striped Skunk RIP

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  • Rubble Killdeer

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  • A Few More Bush Terminal Sights

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  • Raptor Wednesday

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  • Time for Another Edition of Beetlemania?

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  • Youngsters

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  • Reading

    Before Silent Spring, Rachel Carson wrote three books about the sea, which have now been brought together in a single Library of America volume. Some of the science is dated, but these are still delightful and worthy books, and any beach-comber, actual or metaphorical, would do well to have this volume in hand. Catchy title,…

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  • Not This

    Maternal mortality in the US is 23.8 deaths per 100,000 births, far outstripping other “Western” countries. France, the next highest, has 8.7 per 100,000. New Zealand has 1.7. Look for more women to die because of the fundamentalist/fascist SCOTUS decision yesterday. See: Poland, Ireland, El Salvador.

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  • Spiders

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