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.”

  • Offside Tackle?

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  • Carol Gracie

    It recently came to my attention that Carol Gracie, a reader of this blog, died back in October. The three of her books above should be in every northeastern naturalist’s library.

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  • Don’t Hug This One

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  • Bee Fly

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  • Spicebush

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  • Raptor Wednesday

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  • Nesting

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  • Hirundo rustica

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  • Dandelions and Co.

    Your donations help support this blog. Addendum: Dandelions are taxonomically complicated. There are around 250 species in Britain & Ireland and rate their own field guide. It seems like non-specialists here in the U.S. have been assuming that all we have are Taraxacum officinale. But Red-seeded, T. erythrospermum, is another possibility. How many others?

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  • Everywhere

    A Red-tailed Hawk slid across the distant sky without any wing motion at all. Closer, much closer: a tiny bird landed in a nearby tree, and, while looking for it (it was a kinglet) I saw a Northern Flicker. The kinglet leaped around the tree, the Flicker was still. Then, glancing down, I saw a…

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