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.”

  • More Flies!

    February 23 March 1 March 5 March 8 March 14 March 15 (two views of this one). April 1, and one I can actually ID: Black-shouldered Dronefly. Note the pollen on this specimen. Flower flies pollinate, too. Two more from yesterday. The mysteries of Diptera! PS: the answer to yesterday’s mystery photo: it’s the toe…

    See more

  • April Fools Challenge

    What the @#%&! is it? No fooling’.

    See more

  • Raptor Wednesday

    The pair. The female. The male, at twilight.

    See more

  • Bloomflies

    An Edgeworthia something or other, with very small flies. These wee gnats or midges have come out in force on warmish days all month, and even back in February. Something Berberis — a mahonia. This was very active with various flies in the park last week. There was one bee-mimic, one honeybee, and a mess…

    See more

  • Violets

    1. 2. 3. Three varieties or species of Viola here, in flower-size order, smallest to largest.

    See more

  • On A Tree

    A small spider on a dawn redwood cone. The animal’s web was stretched across to another branch. And trapped in the web was a winged-form aphid. This was a week ago, only a few buds had emerged from the tree. E.O. Wilson says somewhere you can spend an entire lifetime voyaging around a single big…

    See more

  • Spring Tanka

    The rosebud cherries Are suddenly emphatic And suddenly gone In nature’s indifference I still keep watch on the blooms.

    See more

  • Tuliptree

    The way a tuliptree bud unfurls with exploratory leaf at the ready…. A big question around here in the epicenter is how long the virus lasts. The report that it was found on one of the plague ships over two weeks later is misleading. That was just particles, not active virus. Bits of RNA or…

    See more

  • I self-isolated the political commentary for a week

    but now I’m erupting: I’ve been calling the GOP a death cult for a while now, and lately they’ve only been too happy to show the label isn’t hyperbole. Trump’s fools are swallowing fish-tank cleaners because of his criminal rambling on the TV about chloroquine: a sixty-year-old Phoenix man is now dead and his wife…

    See more

  • Raptor Wednesday

    Through the new year, sightings of Merlins, or at least a Merlin, were pretty regular here from the #ViewFromTheMoraine. Then, after a single sighting in January, nothing until last Saturday in Green-Wood. It could be that I just haven’t spotted any. More likely is that more of them are on the move now and passing…

    See more