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 Night Fliers

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    More Night Fliers
  • Eggs

    Monarch butterfly egg. Unlike the Question Mark eggs I serendipitously photographed last week, these are relatively easy to get close to. (Well, this egg-hunting does require being on your hands and knees in the broiling sun….) Here’s just the shell of another.

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    Eggs
  • Buffalo

    Buffalo Treehopper/Sticocephala bisonia This one may be the same or a similar species.

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    Buffalo
  • Hear Ye, Hear Ye!

    Or, who’s got the chicken thigh?

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    Hear Ye, Hear Ye!
  • Raptor Wednesday

    The day after the Great Kestrel Massacre, there were two of these little falcons visible from our apartment. (I only managed to photograph one.) A few hours later, I first heard then spotted this youngster in Green-Wood, around the Old Chapel Lizard Hunting Grounds. This female was there too. I don’t know if she’s a…

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    Raptor Wednesday
  • Big Ones

    Reddish Brown Stag Beetle female. Neotibicen dog day cicada. Proctacanthus rufus with Bumblebee prey. European Hornet with bee.

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  • Birds of Prey, Part II

    The day after the Red-tailed Hawk kill I documented yesterday, I returned to the scene to see if any more feathers of the prey had come down from the tree. There were these secondaries. These primaries (flight feathers). And these unmistakable tail feathers. The Red-tail’s lunch was a male American Kestrel. Here’s another male, seen…

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    Birds of Prey, Part II
  • Birds of Prey, Part I

    A Red-tailed Hawk flew into this tree with prey in talons. The local Northern Mockingbirds went bananas. Three of them yelled and dove at the big hawk over and over. The hawk didn’t pay them any mind. Too busy eating… a woodpecker? Urp! No, not a woodpecker. A lot of the prey’s plumage got stuck…

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    Birds of Prey, Part I
  • In Action

    A Question Mark butterfly. Laying eggs on the underside of an elm leaf.

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    In Action