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.”

  • Still Springing

    Apologies: I never finished yesterday’s post. Thursday’s first round of vaccine shots occupied much of my day and I forgot I’d drafted a rant for Friday morning. Both us got the Pfizer as over 50 year olds. There was some soreness in our arms and a craving for margaritas afterwards. We return in three weeks…

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  • Dog Park

    I haven’t been in Prospect Park in a year. Before that, for about half a dozen years, I only visited a few times a year. What a change this has been in my life! This blog’s “beyond” was Prospect when I first started. I live a little further away now, but the real reason is…

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  • Schnozzle

    Glimpses of the comblike projections (lamellae) along the edge of this male Northern Shoveler’s bill. They use these to filter their food from the water. Food includes tiny crustaceans, other aquatic invertebrates, and seeds.

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  • Raptor Wednesday

    Crows harrying a Red-tailed Hawk. Not too much later, two Red-tails were in the same tree. Then four of them were in the air together. Another day of crow patrol. Nest building in a pine. Copulating on a cross. These might not be the same birds as the ones building the nest. Yes, this is…

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  • Turkey Tuesday

    We’re seeing more Black Vultures as they spread north, but, in general, the vulture overhead around here is still most likely to be a Turkey Vulture. This is one of a couple who were passing over Green-Wood recently. In the last photo, see how the sliver/white back end of the wing feathers stretch from the…

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  • Best Way To Start The Week

    Eye WIDE open. Wings spread. Tail cocked. Now go, cat, go! So many possibilities.

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  • Springing

    Trembling aspen. Silver maple. Hoop-petticoat daffodil. American Elm. We had a couple warm days, then it got cold again. Now it’s warming up again. Today is the second day of spring. Let it bloom! Let it boom!

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  • Passenger

    A Song Sparrow with what looks like a tick attached to the side of the eye. There are a few (at least) Ixodes genus bird ticks. I wrote about the “flying zoo” here.

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  • The Arthropods Are Coming

    There are places where the ground is crawling with what I think are thin-legged wolf spiders. Centipede scurrying from the light. Small Milkweed Bug was an unexpected find on a 42F day. Mantis egg case. Found four here.

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  • Tufted and Chrysalis

    The tapping and pecking of various birds in the winter stillness grabs the ears. The woodpeckers, the nuthatches. And in this case, a Tufted Titmouse. I didn’t have time to get focused because the bird dropped its prize, which I first thought might be a peanut, and flew away. But it was a cocoon! And,…

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