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.”

  • Underbark

    I didn’t get outside on New Year’s Day, but on Sunday I got to poke about a bit. Underneath a large piece of bark, deeply curled so its underside was not touching the ground, I found a whole universe of delights. Isopods, a spider, a centipede, two kinds of beetles, everything small and active, near…

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  • Resistance

    Swamp white oak leaves clinging on, regardless.

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  • Journal of the Pandemic Year Just Passed But Hardly Over

    The city is littered with used masks. I’ve worn a bandana or mask outside our apartment since March to protect myself, my loved ones, and my neighbors. I’ve also masked as a mark of community and solidarity. Alas, we have fuckers in our very building who don’t share this concern, so we have been forced…

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  • Colors

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  • Happy New Year

    The rising sun comes through a gap between buildings.

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  • Out With A Bang

    Our smallest woodpecker, the Downy, (Picoides pubescens) is also the boldest in terms of its tolerance of people. Note how the inner eyelid closes on contact. The red patch marks this as a male. This is a Kentucky Coffee Tree. I’m usually long abed by midnight, so here’s a virtual “happy new year!” Anything better…

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  • YBS

    Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus varius) showing the yellow belly for a change. I’m assuming this is a female working towards adult plumage. Sapsucking. The bird drills out holes to pool sap, which she eats, along with any insects attracted to the sap. (We’ve had some Diptera still flying in this mild Decemeber.) Yews (Taxus) are particularly…

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  • Woodpecker Wednesday

    A little woodpecker variety for the last Wednesday of the year. Above, a male Downy (Picoides pubescens), who pounded out a grub from a larch branch. These little woodpeckers will range through the borough. This, however, is a Hairy Woodpecker (Dryobates villosus), which is uncommon in Brooklyn. This, from the middle of the month, is…

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  • The Flying Zoo

    The Blue Jay’s “flying zoo” includes “one flea, six species of lice, five types of ticks, and eight species of mites, in addition to being infected by nine kinds of flukes (trematodes), three tapeworms, one acanthocephalan (thorny-headed worm) and sixteen kinds of roundworms.” Michael Stock’s The Flying Zoo: Birds, Parasites and the World They Share…

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  • Sassafras albidum

    Sassafras makes a handsome natural border. Note the melt pattern.

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