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.”

  • Patterns

    The base of a dead tree, debarked.

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  • Dragonflies

    Common Whitetail (Libellua lydia) male.Twelve-spotted Skimmer (Libellua pulchella) male.Twelve-spotted Skimmer (Libellua pulchella) female.Blue Dasher (Pachydiplax lonipennis) male. Beaverpond Baskettail (Epitheca canis). (h/t to Ed Lam for the ID on this one.)

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  • 300 Year Old Tulip Tree

    At the northern end of Clove Lakes Park in Staten Island is a Tuliptree (Liriodendron tulipifera) said to be 300 years old. I would not say it is extraordinarily tall, but it certainly is large-boled. That head on the right is a child’s, three others are hidden behind the tree. Tuliptrees can be the tallest…

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  • Hooded Warbler

    In Doodletown, a Hooded Warbler (Setophaga citrina).

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  • Juneberry

    The Juneberries (Amelanchier sp.) are nearly ripe, and that means the birds are starting to devour them.A Northern Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos) Cedar Waxwings (Bombycilla cedrorum). Unexpected. Later I found four in a tree on the mezzanine that is Squib Park. Here’s one of these crested beauties:

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  • Papery

    The beginning of a Bald-faced Hornet (Dolichovespula maculata) nest. It would have gotten to be the size of a football (American) if the construction process hadn’t been interrupted.Fallen to the ground from a tree for some reason.You bet I approached it gingerly.

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  • The Green-Wood Tit

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  • Red-Spotted Purple and Azure

    In Sterling Forest State Park, a Red-spotted Purple. Limenitis arthemis has two rather different forms, the other, more northerly, one known as the White Admiral. The “Spring Azure Complex, Celastrina ladon and others,” is how the Kaufman Field Guide refers to these small, widespread, and common butterflies that are azure on the upperside of their…

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  • Chipmunk

    No mean forager and predator, the Eastern Chipmunk (Tamias striatus) will eat just about anything, from acorns and nuts to baby birds, from slugs to insects to carrion. Our local ones are missing out on the bonanza of the 17-year cicadas, which are concentrated in Staten Island. Central Park has seen a rapid rise of…

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  • Spectacular

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