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.”

  • Poop Mold

    Dew-dappled mold on Canada Goose (probably) dropping. Look closer still and you will see these tiny clear or yellow stalked orbs of pin molds. (Impossible to photograph.)

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  • Raptor Wednesday

    Sub-adult Bald Eagle. Adult Red-shouldered Hawk. Was circling with three Great Blue Herons. The next day, a juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk was going around and around. Adult Cooper’s Hawk. Red-tailed Hawk after a bath. All within a mile of home here in Brooklyn.

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    Raptor Wednesday

  • November Insects

    This stinkbug was in the tub.

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  • Melee

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  • Fall Colors

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    Fall Colors

  • Scaup

    This is the first Greater Scaup I’ve seen so close-up. Usually, they’re off-shore and you’re battling the sea wind to see them. This one was on Sylvan Water, a freshwater pond, in Green-Wood Cemetery the other day.

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    Scaup

  • Etymology

    On first looking into Chapman’s Homer, or rather, let’s be real, a quotation from it in a third party, my eyes slid home on this: All done, he all to Thetis brought, and held all up to her./ She tooke them all, and like t’ hawke (surnamed Osspringer) This is the at the end of…

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  • Obligatory

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  • Raptor Wednesday

    With bonus crows…

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    Raptor Wednesday

  • Crustaceous Tuesday

    I can’t get enough of these Mud Fiddler Crabs/Minuca pugnax of the Gowanus Canal.

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    Crustaceous Tuesday