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.”

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    Off the Rockaways…

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  • Seedling

    This is a stump of a venerable Sassafras/Sassafras albidum they had to cut down in Green-Wood. (Luckily, it had a twin right next door….) Anyway, a Tuliptree/Liriodendron tulipifera has gained a roothold in a crack in the old wood.

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  • Last Dragonflies

    Autumn Meadowhawk. Common Green Darner, with details:

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    Last Dragonflies

  • Raptor Wednesday

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    Raptor Wednesday

  • Signs

    We’re entering the quiet season. You have to look harder for signs of life. Here’s a leaf-miner on American Sycamore, perhaps Ectoedemia plantanella. Backlit by the sun, this blotch mine on Pin Oak reveals the frass, waste product, on the left, and the organism, a caterpillar, at the upper right, all between layers of leaf.…

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    Signs

  • Wet Bumbles

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  • Wasp Season

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    Wasp Season

  • Buckeye & Gray Hairstreak

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    Buckeye & Gray Hairstreak

  • Freshwater Jellyfish?

    Yes, a thing. Common Freshwater Jellyfish/Craspedacusta sowerbii. Introduced, all of the world now. They just showed up in Green-Wood’s Sylvan Water. On the plus size, the largest are the size of US quarters. They do sting, that’s how they capture their tiny prey, but their stinging cells are so small they don’t seem to have…

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    Freshwater Jellyfish?

  • Creations

    Woven silk egg sac of Common House Spider/Parasteatoda tepidariorum. Paper nest of Bald-faced Hornets/Dolichovespula maculata.

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