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.”

  • Armchair Naturalist at Sunrise

    A Grey Squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) scouting out House Sparrow (Passer domesticus) cribs as a scrum of sparrows protest.  Bit late in the year for eggs or young in these hideaways, innit?

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  • American Sycamore

    Platanus occidentalis.

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  • Black-headed Gull

    The other exotic bird in Prospect Park lately is a Black-headed Gull (Chroicocephalus ridibundus), which is common in Europe but scanter on this side of the Atlantic. I first saw them in Scotland in 2006. Over here, the coast of Canada is where you might normally expect to see one during the winter. The black…

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  • Lichenworld II

    More marvelous lichens from Nantucket.And amidst them, a tiny mushroom.

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  • Lichenworld I

    Lichens are extremely sensitive to air pollution, so we don’t have all that many here in the city. We’re missing out on an amazing little universe as a result, one we’ve gotten used to not seeing. This is a perfect example of the way environmental destruction isn’t noticed: as species decline and disappear, we become…

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  • Mossery

    Like miniature tropical wildernesses, clumps of moss on the forest floor glow with a green that is only also seen in conifers by late November.What are mosses? I had to look this up: they are non-vascular flowerless plants. In the picture above, the reddish stalk-like structures are sporophytes, the out-of-focus little clumps at the top…

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  • When Drones Attack

    At first it seems as if the raptor-versus-drone videos are a win for the birds. Rah, rah, nature over technology and all that. I’ve seen about half a dozen now, though, and don’t think it’s good for them at all. Which is why I won’t link to any here: publicity begets copycats, drone-heads eager for…

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  • Still

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  • Mourning Dove

    Zenaida macroura.A bird probably taken too much for granted by bird-watchers.Note the pale blue eye-ring. Watch long enough and you’ll see that the nictating membrane is the same color.

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  • Great Swamp

    And so much lichen! The whitish looking parts of these trees are actually lichen in the bright sun. Lichen needs fairly clean air to grow, which is why it is generally — but not completely — absent from NYC.

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