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

    Usually raccoons sleep off the night’s revels in a conifer, as here in Green-Wood, but when in Rome….Someplace, for instance, where the evergreens are in short supply, as in this section of Pelham Bay. A sharper eye than mine pointed out that this hammock is fundamentally made up of poison ivy vine. In the news:…

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  • Gendering Birding

    Here are some very interesting thoughts on bird names by Rick Wright. In fact, Wright’s blog is full of the fascinating history of birding naming. Yes, fascinating, because names are how we understand the world. So who gives those names is important. Yup: as in all human endeavors, that means politics. Along these lines, Wright…

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  • Sapsucker Sign

    Deep inside a yew canopy.The sap is running… well, okay, maybe ambling is a better description. I watched a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker chased off from here by a Red-bellied Woodpecker. The Red-bellied actually pinned the Sapsucker down to the ground for a brief moment, feathers outspread like a mantling raptor, before the birds separated. I’d never…

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  • Baeolophus bicolor

    Wind-tussled Tufted Titmouse in a beech tree with a few old leaves hanging on. *** So last year was the fourth warmest year since 1850. It was slightly cooler than the top three warmest years since 1850… which were, in order, 2016, 2017, and 2015. This data is from BerkeleyEarth; NOAA and NASA haven’t been…

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  • Oh, Schist!

    The eastern edge of Twin Island, facing Long Island Sound just north of Orchard Beach in the Bronx, is an outcropping of the Hartland Formation schist.And does it ever outcrop!Quoting the geological argot of the USGS “The rock consists of granitic and garnetiferous amphibolite gneiss with numerous quartz veins and migmatite dikes. Migmatite is an…

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  • Raptor Wednesday

    Sometimes, you just can’t figure out what the Blue Jays are going on about. Because they often do go on. A lot. But when you also hear nuthatches calling continuously, then look out! Twice recently I’ve come across these cacophonous situations. The multiple bird/multiple species alarm was resounding. Both times, mature Cooper’s Hawk had prey…

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  • What Goes?

    Chipping Sparrow with some kind of growth under the bill. Any thoughts?That’s bird feed all around, spillage from a hanging feeder. There is an avian bill deformity virus, Avian Keratin Disorder, that has spread out from ground zero in Alaska. In that case, the bills grow much longer than usual. This looks more tumorous, but…

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  • Red

    Redder. Reddest? The omnipresent American Robin actually sticks around during winter but changes its behavior rather radically. They become more social and range further about in nomadic, non-territorial flocks in search of fruit. This marks quite a difference from their worm and insect diet of summer, when they’re also very territorial over breeding grounds (like…

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  • So what is the good news in the litany of malignancy? Joshua Tree National Park is seeing vandals destroy the famed trees during Trump’s assault-on-America government shut-down. “Off-road” assholes are ripping up other national parks, too. The Instagram effect of people taking selfies in remote locations is trashing those locations. “Recent housing growth rates are…

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  • Hooded Mergansers

    Shouldn’t be too long before these come into their breeding finery.

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