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.”

  • Hyphantria cunea

    The Fall Webworm caterpillars are out in force this year. Bush Terminal.Transmitter Park. (Droppings on the leaf to the right.)Down the street. Yesterday was Henry THoreau’s 202 birthday. I’ve written quite a bit about him here over the years. He remains a vital beacon in this vicious era.

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  • Tilt-a-nest

    Northern Mockingbird nesting. A late brood or a second one? The angle here, by the way, is accurately represented. I wonder if they built it this way or it somehow shifted once they got it going. If you think these sweetgum pods look odd, you’d be right. This is a different species from our native…

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  • Exuviae

    Wait… what? This Rambur’s Forktail damselfly is perched on the exuviae of a dragonfly.Another view of the male Rambur’s green-blue color pattern. Dragon- and damselfly eggs are laid on or near water. The larval stage is aquatic. After a season, or a year (or more depending on species and location), the aquatic nymph crawls out…

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  • Raptor Wednesday

    The #BrooklynKestrels. Mother and daughters. The young ones tend to look plumper than she does, but I can’t see this in this particular picture. She’s still bringing them food — and this roof is still a larder. They fly down to it, out-of-sight, and come up with a pice of something. There have been some…

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  • Great Egret

    Ardea alba have even been known to show up in small backyard goldfish ponds. If there’s food… and they do seem readily habituated to the presence of similarly long-legged hominids.One of the bird’s long plumes, or aigrettes. These are breeding plumage feathers; this one about 18″ long. They’re the reason these birds were nearly hunted…

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  • Milkweed Flowers &

    Bee tongue hosing up the nectar of Asclepias syriaca.DOA.There’s a wee ant in these curious flowers.Polinia on the bee’s knees. Here’s a leaf-cutter bee on A. tuberosa. Butterflyweed, one of the common names of this type of milkweed, is evidently the drag performer in the Asclepias genus.

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  • “As you know, this is not a new issue.”

    Recently, I cited this April 1979 report, The Long Term Impact of Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide on Climate, from the Jasons to the DOE. That same year saw the publication of Carbon Dioxide and Climate: A Scientific Assessment, by the Ad Hoc Study Group on Carbon Dioxide and Climate. It’s conclusion: “It appears that the warming…

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  • Quiscalus quiscula

    Now, there’s binomial! Doesn’t really help to translate it, however, since it basically means “quail quail.” Well, then, my favorite quail… anyway, as long as we stay away from the Middle Latin-to-English thing and just let Quiscalus quiscula ripple off the tongue. What I’m trying to suggest here is that “Common” Grackle is simply unfair.…

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  • Second Round

    This is the second round of young American Robins in this nest this year. The first brood fledged in the middle of May. At this rate, there’s time for a third brood. The parent bird is holding an unripened mulberry.Another bird on the same day, June 22nd, with the more traditional earthworm.

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  • July 4, 2019

    Fox News, the blackjack of Rupert Murdoch’s assault on America, recently stated that the three least “patriotic” states were New Jersey, New York, and California, in that order. Ha! My first thought was: come on New York, we can be number one! The faux patriotism of Fox — with its mendacity, Trump-worship, white nationalism, and…

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