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.”

  • Anniversary!

    I launched this blog on this day in 2010. Good gravy, has it been this long? That was such a red-letter day, I posted twice! So thank you, readers: 182 of you get these posts delivered to your mailbox; 330 via WordPress Reader; an unknown number via other means through various bookmarking applications. But if…

    See more

  • Shawangunk

    This was amazing! I’d heard about Shawangunk Grasslands NWR for years, but only made it up there for the first time last month. And we were lucky, since word had it that the previous two afternoon/evenings were not very active. Maybe it was the snow the night before we got there? The reserve is maintained…

    See more

  • Cyanocitta cristata

    Or at least one lone feather from a Blue Jay.

    See more

    , ,

  • Raptor Wednesday

    A crop of Cooper’s! These were all seen on the same day recently in Green-Wood. Four sightings, I think of three individual birds, but possibly four. I inadvertently flushed the first (seen in first two photos). It was hiding in an evergreen thicket; I didn’t see the bird until it flew out and landed nearby.…

    See more

    , , ,

  • Corvus corax

    On New Year’s Day, 2015, I saw a pair of Common Ravens at the eastern terminus of 39th St. in Sunset Park. They were canoodling and grooming each other. A mated pair in Brooklyn? When was the last time that happened? Were they here when Europeans arrived? In more recent decades, ravens stuck to remote…

    See more

    , , ,

  • Mammal Monday

    New York City’s City Hall Park squirrels are as bold as lobbyists. They come right up to you when you’re taking a picture of, say, a holly in the snow, and make their demands known.Elsewhere, however, the smaller mammals keep to the night, but that does not necessarily mean they make it through the night…

    See more

    , ,

  • The Amateurs

    The root of the word amateur is the Latin for love. In our hyper-specialized world, “amateur” has become a put-down, which is a shame. The study of birds begun with amateurs. And it’s one of the few contemporary branches of science where amateurs can still regularly rub shoulders, or wings if you prefer, with professionals.…

    See more

    ,
    , ,

  • Kestrel Week VII

    A male American Kestrel in the rain.This London Plane tree across the street has been the scene of near daily Kestrel action. It’s definitely one of the bird’s perching spots. This is where the great battle with the Sharp-shinned Hawk took place, too.Two days later, in the sun. Same tree. This time the bird was…

    See more

    , , , ,

  • Kestrel Week VI

    This is a Peregrine on St. Michael’s at 42nd & 4th Avenue.And this is a near approximation of what the church looks like from my apartment. See the Kestrel up there?I’m physically closer to the church for this one because I hurried down the two avenue blocks to confirm the sighting. I hadn’t seen Kestrels…

    See more

    , , , ,

  • Kestrel Week V

    This was the first sign of a female Kestrel in the neighborhood. I first saw her January 13th. I’d been seeing males in Green-Wood, on Sunset Park High School, and on the 40th Street antenna, an elaborate, two-pronged structure used by a car service, since December.This is the second of three sightings of a male…

    See more

    , , , ,