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.”

  • Book Gifts

    There’s nothing quite like a book. Erasmus had his priorities right: “When I have a little money, I buy books; and if I have any left, I buy food and clothes.” Alas, it’s now impossible to send the old boy a gift of a book, but I think you and yours might appreciate the following…

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  • Arteries

    Always look to the connections, or, as Deep Throat said, follow the money. Trump’s antics as the ultimate reality TV star front the worst of the worst. More info on the tools of the corporate disinformation system larding his regime.

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  • Friday

    Beauty. Ugliness: the sexual predator of a would-be king’s appointment of the financial predators Wilbur Ross and Steve Mnuchin for the top economic jobs in the country bodes more bad news for a developing cabinet/wrecking crew of billionaires, goons, incompetents, and thieves. I expect my Senators, Gillibrand and Schumer, to do everything in their power…

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  • Meandering

    To meander, wandering this way and that, like the ancient Greek river Maiandros, by way of the Latin Maeander. The word itself has meandered down to us. There was no guarantee it would ever arrive here after its strange journey. That river was in Phrygia, Anatolia, now Turkey. The province also bequeathed us the the…

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  • Raptor Wednesday Plus Pellets

    This Belted Kingfisher (Megaceryle alcyon) female was flying directly towards me across the Crescent Water when suddenly she freaked out. A Cooper’s Hawk (Accipiter cooperii) sped overhead, arrowing towards her. There was much shouting by the Kingfisher, who loudly went hither and yon as the foiled Coop parked itself in a Sweetgum. I see Cooper’s…

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  • Pied-billed Grebe

    Our smallest grebe species is the Pied-billed, Podilymbus podiceps.There was one in a flotilla of Canada Geese the other day in the Valley Water.(Same bird here, just a lot of differing lighting situations.) * Two and a quarter million more Americans voted for Hillary Clinton than for Donald Trump, and counting (freaking California is so…

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  • Daily Raptor

    I don’t see raptors single every day here in Brooklyn, but it sure seems like it averages out that way. Take this weekend. Yesterday morning, before I was fully awake, I looked out the window and saw a Cooper’s Hawk above a confusion of pigeons over towards 4th Avenue. After breakfast: there was a male…

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  • Great Horned Owl

    Everybody could probably do with some Bubo virginianus right about now, right? (Excepting the night mammals, of course!) Spotted this one today when a fire-alarm of White-breasted Nuthatches alerted me to SOMETHING being up.

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  • Crime of the Century

    “Models predict that the present trend of fossil fuel use will lead to dramatic climatic changes within the next 75 years…. Should it be deemed necessary to maintain atmospheric CO2 levels to prevent significant climatic changes, dramatic changes in patterns of energy use would be required.” A 1979 Exxon memo, one of many revealing finds…

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  • American Black Ducks

    Anas rubripesAmerican Black Ducks are year-’round birds, but they are now sharing the harbor with our wintering Buffleheads, Gadwall, Wigeon, and Red-breasted Mergansers. Soon, loons and grebes should be seen as well. There’s been a Humpback Whale in the harbor and up the Hudson, too, lately, although this blogger hasn’t seen a tail of it…

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