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.”

  • Raptor Wednesday

    We had to be away from the #BrooklynKestrels Lookout for a week. All the trees leafed out in our absence. Except for this bare branch sticking upright across the street. Yes! The wee falcons are still going strong. Yesterday morning around 8:30 the male announced his presence with swirling call. He had prey. The female…

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  • The Mossy Bits

    A primer on moss reproduction to go with this photo of a sporophyte.

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  • House

    Whose nest is this?Why, it’s Passer domesticus, of course. The House Sparrow. Usually stuffed into a hole in a building, or, better yet, a stop light pole, this tornado of dried grasses is generally invisible. House Sparrows are unrelated to the New World sparrows; sometimes they are called weaver finches, and looking at the woven…

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  • Can’t Stop Won’t Stop

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  • Bird Boxing

    It’s a little late in the year for this, but I just found this book. It’s a very good place to start if you want to set up and maintain — stress on the maintain — bird homes for the next breeding season and the ones after that. Habitat, siting, building, monitoring, maintaining are all…

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  • More Raven, Please

    Rated R for Raven. These are from the day of the Great Duck Egg Caper. Another, more recent evening. I was down in the Sunset Park flatlands. Two Ravens were taking eggs from the street corner, one after another. These were supermarket eggs, and there were a lot of them. Probably a case of 18,…

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  • Raptor Wednesday

    When I spotted this male American Kestrel on the ground and some of the smaller tombstones, I thought, whoa, a way of hunting I’ve never seen before! But look at that left wing. It’s damaged. I followed. This, of course, made the bird move away from me. I formulated a make-shift falcon-catching situation out of…

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  • May Day

    Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (Polioptila caerulea).

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  • Just This

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  • NYC Wildflower Week

    Hear ye, hear ye! NYCWW will be celebrating it’s 10th anniversary May 11-20. There are lots of free events. Including one of my Listening Tours, a silent walk through Prospect Park at dawn to listen to the sounds of spring migration. Yes, that’s 5:30 a.m., but don’t let that scare you: you will be amazed…

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