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.”

  • Even More Evidence

    Pictures from the last week here in Brooklyn and northwestern Philadelphia. As spring continues, so does the most corrupt administration in American history, doing deep and lasting damage to the country, our democracy, and the rule of law.

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  • How About Some Turtles

    Recently seen: Some Spotted Turtles. The last pictured was tiny, perhaps 1.5″ down the shell (head to tail).Painted Turtles.At a whole other scale, a veteran Snapping Turtle krakening the shallows. *** The new abolitionism: a fascinating profile of Ruth Wilson Gilmore.

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  • More Spring Beauty

    Timing is everything. Last Thursday, a cool spring day, in northwestern Philadelphia, things were just on the cusp. These Sanguinaria canadensis, bloodroot, were waiting for the sun.These Trilliums, too.Ah, but look carefully! Thalictrum thalictroides, rue anemone.Cardamine concatenata, the cutleaved toothwort, crow’s toes, pepper root or purple-flowered toothwort.The sun did come out in the afternoon… Stylophorum…

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  • Great Egret!

    First I’ve seen this year.The word “preen” seems have been first used to describe bird behavior. *** Trump’s political hatchet Barr has kept the Mueller report from the eyes of democracy so far. But here are 50 points of the public record on Trump’s deals with, funding by, and working with, Russian oligarchs/autocrats who have…

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  • Spring Beauty

    For many people this is, I realize, appealing. But let’s look beyond the lurid gaudiness to the more subtle spring ephemerals down on the forest floor. Like bloodroot.And spring beauties.And trout lilies. (Plus some mayapple.) All on the grounds of the Morris Arboretum or nearby Wissahickon Valley Park.

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  • Wright On Sparrows

    The big book of little brown jobs is here at last. The enviably erudite Rick Wright has written a very readable reference guide to the LBJs, sparrow division. It’s not a field guide: the hardcover large format precludes that. (I presume a paperback will follow; there’s also an ebook version, but you know those are…

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  • Poetry Month

    For oft, when on my couch I lie In vacant or in pensive mood, They flash upon that inward eye Which is the bliss of solitude; And then my heart is lifted of woes And sky-dances with all the crows. With sincerest apologizes to William Wordsworth this National Poetry Month…

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  • Stink Cabbage

    Some skunk cabbage, so called because of the smell, which attracts flies. Flies being some of the earliest pollinators in spring. The mottled curvilinear part is the spathe, a sheath-like bract that encloses the spadix. Unfortunately off the path, so couldn’t get closer. Through the magic of the internet, however, you can take a closer…

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  • Red-Spotted Newts

    The Eastern Red-spotted Newt. A.K.A. Eastern Newt. Notophthalmus viridescens. This is the aquatic adult stage. When they’re younger, they have a terrestrial stage. On land, the “red efts” are startlingly orange-red colored, walking “don’t eat me!” signs (being toxic to most predators). These spotted newts can live more than a dozen years. This seems to…

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  • Raptor Wednesday

    The neighborhood American Kestrels are all over the place lately. Here’s the female perching on a roof fence nearer to Falcon Crest — a new name for the apartment — than usual.The building behind her — four little row houses away — is where you will typically find her, perching on the various roof pipes…

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