These two species are usually seen in flight, meaning barely seen at all as they zip around, but I found two Wandering and one Spot-Winged perched in the same patch on a recent overcast morning.

See more

A Long-tailed Giant Ichneumenon Wasp (Megarhyssa macrurus) female. She is sniffing (antennae-ing) out the hosts of her young. She uses this long ovipositor to tuck into dead wood after the larvae of Pigeon Horntails (Tremex columba), another good-sized Hymenopteran. I’ve only seen a Tremex here in Brooklyn once. Here are two males. They were nearby,…

See more

I have lately seen a few things on social media about the importance of street trees. The various “services” they provide: shade, clean air, beauty. Nobody ever mentions that even a tree stuck in a hardpan pit surrounded by concrete and pissing dogs is also an ecosystem, a microcosm. Ants running up and down the…

See more

Backyard and Beyond accepts donations to defray the cost of hosting all these beautiful images.

See more

See more

Following up yesterday’s Common Aerial Yellowjacket, here’s a more common-around-here Bald-faced Hornet devouring a skipper. Everything but the wings. The big mandibles of the Dolichovespula can scrape up the wood fibers they use to build their paper nests, and then dismember prey lickety-split. I see Bald-faced Hornets hunting all the time, but this is the…

See more

See more

See more

See more

There were a few pairs of American Oystercatchers (Haematopus palliatus) out on the Jacob Riis and Fort Tilden beaches the other day.

See more