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.”

  • Hatched and Hunched

    Somebody has wedged these seeds into the defiles of a shagbark hickory and whacked into them. I suspect the White-breasted Nuthatch, a species in ample evidence here this winter. They’re seen and heard on every walk. Anyone care to venture the identity of these seeds? They aren’t hickory. Both the White-breasted and Red-breasted will often…

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  • Oxyura jamaicensis

    A lot of Canada geese on and around Sylvan Water. But just one female Ruddy Duck.

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  • At the Dance

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  • Off-shore

    White-winged Scoter. Long-tailed Duck (male). Long-tailed Duck (female), a bit further out. Common Eider (young male). Red-breasted Merganser (male). Red-breasted Merganser (female). Gadwall (duck and drake).

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  • Various Birds

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  • Raptor Wednesday

    Cooper’s. American Kestrel. Cooper’s. Merlin. Same Merlin from the back. Those red zig-zag twigs? A linden. More Cooper’s. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Brooklyn, NY, USA, has damn good raptors. As usual, all the above sightings, from this January, were within a mile or two of home. That first Cooper’s was…

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  • Fagus

    A woodsy gargoyle … An allee of beeches always has a lot of detail. Pachydermal detail…

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  • Marsh

    “Some enthusiastic entomologist will, perhaps, by and by discover that insects and worms are as essential as the larger organisms to the proper working of the great terraqueous machine […] The silkworm and the bee need no apologist; a gallnut produced by the puncture of an insect on a Syrian oak is a necessary ingredient…

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  • Tree, Mushroom, Bird

    Woodpeckers have unusually stiff tail feathers. A broken branch of a wizened paper birch. I wonder if the bird knows to follow the mushrooms to the weakest wood? Seems a good bet. Remind me to take another look soon to see if this hole gets bigger.

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