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.”

  • Oystercatchers

      An adult American Oystercatcher (Haematopus palliatus) sticks out of the landscape like a sore bill. Sand-colored young American Oystercatchers, however, are not so easy to see or photograph. But they, or their parents, or all of them combined, sure do make a lot of noise.

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  • That Yellow Crown

    Let’s get a little closer, shall we…?There is definitely some yellow in the Yellow-Crowned Night Heron’s crown.We’d see it better if the sun wasn’t so bright. Because I could hardly have been closer: I was in a blind, less than ten feet from the bird.

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  • Pet-trade Refugee

    One of the many surplus Red-eared Sliders (Trachemys scripta elegans) dumped into local waterways. Idiots buy them and tire of them and let them loose. The red “ear” is actually just a mark; on this specimen it’s rather pale; sometimes it doesn’t show at all. I once counted 70 RESs, which are native to the southeast…

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  • Night Singing

    The other day, I heard an American Robin (Turdus migratorius) singing at 4:09 a.m. Another night-singer you might hear in our parts is the Northern Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos), pictured here in full diurnal aria. What you definitely won’t hear here is the “Blackbird singing in the dead of night” of the Beatles, because that’s Turdus…

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  • Solstice

    The sun will rise to its highest point in the sky today here in the northern hemisphere, meaning you will cast your shortest shadow of the year. Look at those miniature suns at the edge of the path… Closer: Opuntia humifusa, Prickly Pear Cactus, now blooming. This is the only native cactus in our part of the…

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  • Chestnut

    Castanea dentata.

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  • Gateways

    Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia) absolutely owning the place.There are a good number of Songs nesting at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, which is part of Gateway National Recreation Area.Another was singing on top of this Tree Swallow (Tachycineta bicolor) nest box. There’s probably a whole family of swallows in there behind the parent seen poking out.The…

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  • Tiny Hopper

    I think this a nymph Differential Grasshopper (Melanoplus differentials). In the high grasslands of Governor’s Island, which were also filled with Seven-spotted Lady Beetles.

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  • European Paper Wasp

    Polistes dominula, gathering some boardwalk wood.

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  • Eastern Harvestman

    Or Eastern Daddy Longlegs (Leiobunum vittatum). Your annual reminder: these are not spiders, don’t have fangs, don’t bite, and are not venomous. Some can spritz you with a stinking defensive spray, though.

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