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.”

  • Homeboy Mammal

    Originally posted on Backyard and Beyond: First glance on rounding the corner of a shady tree: I thought this was a hairy cat on the loose. I mean, a big, low-slung hairball, one of those Persians who’s been to Paris, if you know what I mean.Woodchuck. Whistlepig. Groundhog. Land beaver. Marmota monax. In Green-Wood. I’ve…

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  • Red-tailed One

    Perched near the edge of Green-Wood Cemetery, a Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) surveys the scene. One of the classic field marks of this species is the vaguely V-shaped white splotching on the back. The band of darker splotches across the belly is another tell. (In the west, things get more complicated ~ there are some…

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  • Sunset Park Elm

    Solar powered.

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  • Sunset Park Elm

    At dawn. Still at dawn, but with a different filter. These were taken after last weekend’s blizzard.

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  • Great Horned

    Bubo virginianus, bold as daylight.

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  • The Acrobat’s Red Belly

    A Red-bellied Woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus) showing his generally covert namesake, the kinda-reddish belly, while going for the triple roll. What looks like sweet potato is a peanut butter concoction stuffed into a coconut shell at the feeders in the Ramble.

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  • Momento Mori Monday

    Et in Arcadia ego.

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  • Sunset Park Elm

    A long-shot from the apartment yesterday morning. The night before, Friday, when the snow started, I was looking out the window about 11pm. It was a white night, the lights of the city bouncing down from the low clouds. A large bird came from overhead, just a story or two higher than my fourth floor.…

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  • Storm Birds

    There’s a surprising amount of bird activity out there. Pigeons are being driven laterally by the wind. An occasional gull is visible in the gull-colored sky. House Sparrows sweep across sidewalks and the gated little yards across the street on the hunt for food. Starlings flocking in a small Chinese Scholar tree gobble the hanging…

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  • Passengers

    Actually, they’re no longer passengers on this Earth with us. A Passenger Pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius) diorama at the American Museum of Natural History.

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