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.”

  • Sappy

    A Blue Atlas Cedar (Cedrus atlantica)A line of sapsucker holes. About 3/4″ deep, through the bark.These holes are chiseled out by, in our parts, the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus varius), who drinks the sugary sap and snaps up any insects also attracted to the sweet stuff.

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  • Mammal Monday

    Procyon lotor being diurnal? Questionable but not unheard of (other than being rabid, I mean). Still, a good rule of thumb with all wild animals is to keep your distance. I let my telephoto get close. Underneath two hickory trees, and getting some of the last of the nuts I think.

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  • Year of the Bird

    This year marks the centennial of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which has rightfully been called one of the most powerful conservation laws ever. Audubon, BirdLife International, Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, & National Geographic* have all teamed up to celebrate this 100th anniversary with the Year of the Bird. The MBTA makes it “illegal for…

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  • Kestrel Check-In

    Check. Check. Check.All these shots are from this week. The last two were on Thursday afternoon. I saw the female feed on small birds, presumably House Sparrows, twice within an hour. She’s packing in the food for egg-laying: remember, an American Kestrel egg represents 11% of the female’s body weight.For raptor friends, the scrape cam…

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  • Even More Sharp-shinned

    As I was preparing to head out the door last Sunday, the dawn of DST, I glanced out the window occasionally to see if the Kestrels would show up at the crack of dawn. They don’t set their clocks forward, after all. A bird whooshed into the London Plain across the street and hop-skipped-flew up…

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  • Sharp-shinned Continued

    Grooming.

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  • Raptor Wednesday

    Sharpie! The little Accipiter, Sharp-shinned Hawk, Accipiter striatus.This was the bird who did not like our male American Kestrel back in the middle of February.But it wasn’t all sortie after sortie.This is a juvenile female. The males are substantially smaller: on average just a midge smaller than an American Kestrel, in fact. The one time…

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  • Thryothorus ludovicianus

    A pair of Carolina Wrens were exploring a slope in Green-Wood.No crevice went unexplored in the search for insects, eggs, and cocoons..

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  • Mammal Monday

    I haven’t seen one of these people in far too long. Marmota monax: groundhog, woodchuck, whistlepig, chuckling (when young).Oh, yeah, Rodentia: all in the teeth.

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  • Make Your Own Metaphors

    Turtle with a leech latched onto its…brain? Some people say the Senator from Oligarchy, Mitch McConnell, whose career is based on an infusion of foreign cash, looks like a turtle. I wouldn’t want to insult a turtle with that comparison. But the miserable old cynic sure acts like a leech on democracy… so there’s that.

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