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.”

  • Redbuds and Friends

    Remember, you can always click on an image here to make it larger.

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  • Raptor Wednesday

    The last time I saw the local American Kestrels together was on April 20. I assume the female is incubating now. (The male will sit on eggs, but the female does most of this work.) I’ve seen the male a few times since. I only pass through these parts twice a day, though. I’ve now…

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  • Nesting Already

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  • Lifeforms

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  • Warblers, Incoming!

    I spent many years not knowing that every spring three dozen species of wood warblers come streaming up the east coast to gobble up insects on their way to breeding grounds further north. Here’s one of the rarer ones: a Worm-eating Warbler, ridiculously named. This particular one spent a few days in this and neighboring…

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  • Baby Leaves

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  • Birds, Birds, Birds

    “The two forms of antidemocracy feed on each other.“

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  • Kestrels Re-Nest

    Saturday afternoon, painters gentrified the cornice that American Kestrels have used as a nest since 2018. As part of that very rapid work, they closed off the rotted-out old hole up there. On Sunday, we still saw both birds from the window. But Monday morning, ominously, we didn’t have wee colorful falcons perched in the…

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  • Raptor Wednesday: The End of An Era

    From this angle, you can’t see the hole in this cornice very well. You sure can see the whitewash, though. American Kestrel point their tails out and squirt away. Falco sparverius is an unusual North American raptor species in that they nest inside cavities. They usurped some Starlings, no mean usurpers of nesting sites themselves,…

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  • Some Pines

    Setophaga pinus, the Pine Warbler, comes in different flavors.

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