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

    Male American Kestrel, Falco sparverius, on a regular Green-Wood perch. Other recent sightings include Kestrel on the local antenna yesterday afternoon; a beautiful mature Red-Tail right over the apartment earlier Tuesday; two Peregrine at Borough Hall (Friday) and the nearby House of Detention (Monday), site of a long-time nest; Cooper’s here there and everywhere. Actually,…

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  • Sunset Park Elm

    Five Practical Principles to Guide Our Work Under Trump.

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  • Aix sponsa

    The Valley Water was the sole preserve of a Pied-billed Grebe recently, until this male Wood Duck came in for a landing. He paddled back and forth a few times as if the pond was a fashion runway and then flew off.What a show-stopper! Those eyes! * The public lands of this nation are a marvel,…

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  • More Book Gifts

    Richard Fortey‘s book about his four acres of Chiltern beechwood is just out in the U.S. This is a natural history in every sense, a kind of archeology of an ancient forest whose trees are barely a hundred years old. Sound paradoxical? Read on! “I believe that all organisms are as interesting as human beings,…

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  • Patterns of Wood

    Trump’s entire proposed cabinet is made up of enemies of science, experts in “the dark arts of misinformation.” EPA-bound Pruitt, for instance, is nothing more than a mouthpiece for the oil and gas industry.

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  • GHO

    Who?Yes, the owl who sys “whoooo.” Bubo virginianus, the Great Horned Owl. * Here is a very fine speech on optimism and despair given by Zadie Smith.

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  • Podilymbus podiceps

    When I first spotted this Pied-bill Grebe in the Valley Water, it was amidst a flotilla of Canada Geese.A week later it was the sole bird on the water.You can see why it’s sticking around. * Trump’s pick for National Security Advisor is a real piece of work: ignorant, power-mad, and conspiratorially deranged. I wrote…

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  • Raptor Wednesday

    I didn’t have to leave the house for these, although of course they’re all too far away. Here’s an American Kestrel perched an avenue away. This is the same antenna that has hosted Red-tailed Hawk, Merlin, and crows (could be American or Fish in these parts); usually it’s festooned with Starlings. Same day, earlier, spotted…

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  • One Way, or Another

    Northern Mockingbird defending its territory. Trump’s choice to dismember the Department of Education and feed off its corpse is another of these cultish, right-wing, plutocratic nutbags this country produces far too many of, but of course even most Democrats have been fine with undermining public education. Yet privatization of education, as other public goods, only…

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  • Ardea herodias

    Great Blue Heron.This bird had been hanging out in Green-Wood deep into the autumn. It had got quite used to passersby, in fact several people were concerned about its condition because it was “just standing there.” I last saw it 11/25, when I took these pictures; I haven’t seen it the last two weekends. Perhaps…

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