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.”

  • Brooding

    New York, except possibly for parts of Long Island, are not in the range of Brood X Magicicada genus periodical cicadas. We had to travel to Princeton, NJ, practically their northeastern-most outpost, to see them. And hear them: a thrumming incantation, background for much of our time in the town. In the thick of it,…

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  • Corvid, Spelled Right

    “How many dawns, chill form his rippling rest/The raven’s wings shall dip and pivot him,/Shedding black rings of tumult, building high/ Over the chained bay waters Liberty–” Hart Crane, with a little substation of a raven for his seagull. Work has been going on atop the tower through most of the breeding season, but this…

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  • Ravens

    This year’s crop of Sunset Park ravens should be out and about soon. Some other raven families already are: tune in tomorrow as this three day corvid weekend continues. Did you know that you can help fund the continuation of this blog?

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  • Fish Crow

    This Fish Crow, identified by voice, repeatedly picked something off or out of this dead branch of an Eastern Cottonwood. Shall we make this a Corvid 2021 weekend? Here’s a Fish Crow being chased by Common Grackles, who are probably defending their nest space.

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  • Obliging Rough-winged Swallows

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  • World Bee Day

    I don’t really know what World Bee Day is, but everyday is good for celebrating bees. Beeware, however, of green-washing corporate sponsors and bee-washing honey bee industrialists bearing gifts.

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  • Raptor Wednesday

    Saw this one zip in and out of a cornice but was about a block away, so wasn’t sure exactly which hole it was. There sure are options. To re-cap the Brooklyn Kestrels saga: they were displaced from their cornice nest of three breeding seasons by home repair. They moved an avenue block away. I…

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  • Butterflies

    First butterflies photographed this year. The early Mourning Cloak eluded the lens, but not the eye.

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  • Flying Food

    Birds were out in force on Saturday morning in Green-Wood when Eastern Subterranean Termites started “hatching out.” The winged reproductives pour out of their colonies and take to the air. They’re not the best of fliers, and many never even get into the air. Half an hour after I took a picture of this stump…

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  • New Insects (And a Spider)

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