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.”

  • 3/262

    Rare Birds of North America is a very interesting book, but it’s definitely for the advanced birder. The front matter, however, includes an excellent discussion of vagrancy and the question of how these birds show up here, through drift, disorientation, overshooting, dispersal… which should be of interest to all nature-literate folk. It’s a much-noted fact…

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  • Raptor Wednesday

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  • Ice Erosion

    Ice above a rushing steam, grooved by the leaping waters?

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  • Amidst The Eagles

    Would you believe me if I said there were so many Bald Eagles 50 minutes north of NYC by train that I simply lost count of the plethora of winged giants in the winter landscape? Luckily, somebody was keeping score: one member of our Brooklyn Brainery party tallied two dozen eagle sightings during our excursion…

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  • Croton Point Field Trip

    I’m leading a trip up to Croton Point to look for Bald Eagles with Brooklyn Brainery. The trip sold out before I had a chance to post notice of it here. The picture above is from last winter. There is now a confirmed Bald Eagle nest in Staten Island, or, rather, offshore of Staten Island,…

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  • Who Indeed?

    Winter’s day ~ an owl’s yellow eyes watching me.

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  • All Trees Edition

    River Birch (Betula nigra), young above and middle-aged below, if I’m not mistaken. The giant old Eastern Cottonwood (Populus deltoides) between the two bridges.Bud on ice. Waiting, waiting…A trio of Catalpa trees, prime Two-Spotted Ladybug habitat.The Kentucky Coffee trees on the right, however, don’t inspire the aphids the ladybugs eat.Catalpa pods.

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  • Raptor Wednesday

    This tangle of a pair of trees by the Terrace Bridge in Prospect Park, complete with what looks like a fairly-secure snapped-off Y-shaped limb, is a fine raptor hang-out. I’ve seen a Red-tailed Hawk, Merlin, and now a Cooper’s Hawk (Accipiter cooperii) up here in recent weeks, each separately. Yes, the Coop is in this…

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  • Gadwalling About

    Gadwall (Anas strepera) are a sort of stealth duck, present throughout the winter months but often not noticed with their subdued plumage. This is a long shot photo, but closer views show this plumage is quite spectacular, if not colorful. These three males are some of the handful usually floating between the piers at Brooklyn…

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  • A Month of Raptors

    I didn’t begin the month thinking I would end up paying rigorous attention to the raptors I’d see, but the New Year’s Day appearance of a Peregrine Falcon zooming down 39th Street became, in retrospect, auspicious. Below are the month’s raptor sightings, meaning individual birds may have been counted more than once, for instance the…

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