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.”

  • Mammal Monday

    It’s just remarkable how the sound of teeth gnawing on hickory shells travels in the winter woods.

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  • A Cedar Plum

    “DID you ever chance to hear the midnight flight of birds passing through the air and darkness overhead, in countless armies, changing their early or late summer habitat? It is something not to be forgotten. A friend called me up just after 12 last night to mark the peculiar noise of unusually immense flocks migrating…

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  • Kestrel Renewal

    Well, here they are, kitty-corner from last year’s cornice nest. Have seen no mating as yet, but that sure doesn’t mean there hasn’t been any. Picture above from March 5th. On Thursday, March 14th, at about 5:30pm, the same set up: both on the chimney pot after she flew there from a nearby roof pipe.…

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  • Solidarity with Youth Climate Strike

    What. Why. Where. Greta Thunberg.

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  • Fossils

    A collection of fossils from Missouri, from back when the region was a shallow sea. Long before our time, my friends. These were a gift from a friend who recommended they be boiled a long, long time before they’re ready. I can’t get over the ones that look like liberty or Phrygian caps. You might…

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  • Raptor Wednesday

    A young Red-tailed launches into the air in pursuit of… a Canada Goose? No, really? Yes, really. There were a dozen geese herding up the hill above Crescent Water in Green-Wood. The hawk raised a gaggle and disappeared from my sight. Then it flew back to this tree, making another pass of the geese as…

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  • Hatchin’ Still

    We began the winter with White-breasted Nuthatches, and as we near the end of it… three of them were working over this old horse chestnut, whispering amongst themselves. This one kept finding tidbits in this tree cave. On an hour’s walk in very chilly Green-Wood recently, I came across around a dozen of these nuthatches,…

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  • Mammal Monday

    Curling up on a roof on a cold winter day. For two days, this raccoon spent daylight hours up here on a neighboring roof. The gutter, and poor roof drainage, provided water from the recent snowfall. It disappeared just a few minutes before sunset the first day.  I thought it might be a goner, for…

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  • Dogs of Prospect, Again

    I used to spend so much time in Prospect Park! It’s farther away now, but that’s not the reason I’m there so infrequently now. Half a dozen Red-winged Blackbirds were burbling with Spring there the other day. A Song Sparrow was singing, tree buds were clearly on the edge of bursting, mosses waved their tiny…

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  • Foxy

    A trio of Fox Sparrows were kicking up the good stuff along with a couple of White-throated Sparrows.Both species are usually under cover of shrubs and bushes. The leftover snow had probably set them foraging out in the open.

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