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.”

  • Autumn Meadowhawk

    Waited all through October for the sight of a Sympetrum vicinum. Three centimeters of fiery, late season dragonfly. Finally spotted one last Friday, when the temperature got into early 70s. Spotted at Sylvan Water in Green-Wood, the only one seen. Not many of these have been observed this fall in NYC, at least according to…

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  • Pignut and Other Colors

    Your reds get talked about a lot during the fall, but let’s not forget the yellow of a pignut hickory. Same tree, a different day, and later sunlight. A bald cypress cultivar, I think. Northern red oak. Franklinia alatamaha. Not found in the wild since the early 19th century, all specimens today are cultivated. Named…

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  • The Eagle Has Taken Off

    I saw the Bald Eagle in the white oak twice this week. I guess the bird saw me, too. Eagle Power! The silver band is a federal marker. I didn’t see the more readily readable state band on the bird’s left foot, but I’m assuming this bird is marked R over 7. Some have dubbed…

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  • Beauty and Slime

    This was too high up, on a dead part of a big red oak, to get a better photo, but damn, isn’t it amazing? The Asian Beauty (Radulomyces copelandii) fungus is a recent introduction from Asia, with the first East Coast records in Massachusetts only from 2011. It seems to be moving fast. The Japanese…

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  • Falcon Twilight

    Last night, as sunset approached, I noticed something atop St. Michael’s at 4th Avenue and 42nd St. It was a Peregrine falcon. At the same time, I saw something on the closer large antenna at 5th and 40th: it was another Peregrine! Double trouble, indeed! But it got better. The antenna Peregrine flew off and…

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  • More Eagle

    This bird is just so majestic I’m going to put up more pictures. Sounds like the best electoral turnout since 1900, with 66%. So approximately one-third of the nation opposes democracy since they voted for someone who stated, in advance, that he doesn’t want all votes counted if they’re not for him. And wow, their…

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  • Raptor Wednesday Come Hell or High Water

    Well, well, well, look what I saw on Election Day. In George Orwell’s 1945 essay “Notes on Nationalism” he makes the point that “Nationalism is not to be confused with patriotism.” No fucking way that a bunch of eagle-killers get to be called “patriots.” This post was set up hours before polls closed Tuesday, hence…

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  • Emergency Nature

    The patch of red peaking out! The white patches on this one! Who says all birds (of a species) look the same? One more Golden-crowned Kinglet today from a patch of three four six, it was hard to tell. “Kinglet” for their crowns, but also, it seems to me when I see them come leap-flying…

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  • 11/3/20

    As this is a referendum on autocracy, I voted against fascism. People who vote for Trump after four years of Trump are voting for vicious, corrupt, irrational, monstrous authoritarianism. They are, through Fox-infected stupidity and/or white supremacist malignity, announcing themselves as fucking monsters enabling the dismemberment of American democracy. People who vote for a third…

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  • The Cache

    For days now, a Red-bellied Woodpecker has been heard in the London plane tree across the street. The distinctive “quirrr!” announces his bird. But he doesn’t stay long. I hustled to the window with the camera a couple of times before just staking out the situation to catch these images. The bird is caching acorns…

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