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.”

  • Raven

    My first good look at a Common Raven this year, the sixth year I’ve been watching them here in Brooklyn. Sure, I hear them occasionally, and see them from a distance, but this was relatively close. This one landed with some food high up in a tree. The bird’s feathers are ready for molt! The…

    See more

  • Waiting

    Last May, this little hillock was abuzz with cellophane bees. Their dirt mound nests were all over the place, and the bees themselves were thick in the air. The next generation is in here now. Four more months to go! Took these photos yesterday, just before the inauguration. Not far away was a Persian ironwood…

    See more

  • Raptor Wednesday

    Red-tailed Hawk in tuliptree. Cooper’s Hawk coming in. The Cooper’s kept a sharp eye on the larger hawk. The latter flew away and was followed by the Coop to another tuliptree some 75 yards away. Then they returned back to the original tuliptree, so as I was making my way thataway they passed me by…

    See more

  • Nuts

    These two Dark-eyed Juncos were underneath a hickory tree that was absolutely littered with pieces of nut. A couple of Black-capped Chickadees were doing the same. Elsewhere: a similar hickory smorgasbord. I supposed squirrels make these messes. There’s still a lot of nut meat here. Not sure what this one is working on. Wing of…

    See more

  • Mammal Monday

    Dead raccoon’s back foot. Exterior wanted in. Interior didn’t want the exterior inside. Exterior got in. Lots of squabbling in the trees now, two three four five squirrels racing up and down, leaping between trees. I saw two squirrels fall recently, one from about eight feet in a squirrel-tussle and one from even higher as…

    See more

  • A Visitation of Grackles, Part II

    This one landed in a sidewalk tree and then came down to the sidewalk in front of us. And went for a snack! Too fast and too close to get focused on. Something flavored with orange cheese product, perhaps? Junk food is junk food, whoever eats it.

    See more

  • A Visitation of Grackles, Part I

    A flock suddenly appeared the other day right outside the apartment. They stuck around for a couple of hours. Here are various members of the group. Yes, snacks were had. A malfunctioning gutter is a standby bathing and drinking spot for the local Starlings, House Sparrows, and Mourning Doves. The Grackles put it to use,…

    See more

  • Scars, Buds, Etc.

    What Core and Ammons in their handy Woody Plants in Winter call the “downy line across the top” of the leaf scar of a butternut (Juglans cinerea). The tawny suede-looking thing up there. Mustache-like, but at the top, or outer edge of the scar. Now, here’s the genus-mate eastern black walnut (Juglans nigra) for comparison.…

    See more

  • Watering Hole in the Ice

    Beckett says somewhere that we spend our life “trying to bring together in the same instant a ray of sunshine and a free bench.” For birds in winter, it’s an open bit of water. The sunshine is gravy. Back in October I spied on the birds bathing under the little weeping variety of bald cypress…

    See more

  • The Threats to the Insects

    A special feature in the latest Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences is a series of articles on the global decline of insects in the Anthropocene. “Nature is under siege,” begins the introduction to the gathered paper of a symposium sponsored by the Entomological Society of America in November, 2019. The threats, short-handed as…

    See more