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.”

  • “Mortimer!”

    A brand new Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) displays gray plumage and bottomless appetite. Right now, these recently fledged birds are hopping after their parents on the ground, demanding food. It’s early enough in the year that this bird’s parents could certainly have another brood, if not two more. This is one of the reasons this Eurasian-origin…

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  • Columbine

    Aquilegia canadensis.

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  • Bugs and Blooms, Finally!

    Aphids feasting on plant juices, a 14-spotted lady beetle (Propylea quatuordecimpunctata) and syrphid fly larva (h/t for the ID on this one, Lost Ladybug Project) feeding on aphids.

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  • Misc. May

    These flowering cherry blossoms and the ones below were on the same tree. There was a single branch of the flowers (below) amid all the skirty pink ones:

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  • Rain, Roses

    On the corner, overflowing the fence.

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  • New Views, New Lives, New Camera

    Nice contrast between the altricial young of the American Robin, with their eyes closed, featherless, and quite helpless, and the precocial Mallard ducklings, who are ready to rock (and swim, forage) almost instantly. Note how much bigger-looking the background bird is in the Robin nest: could this be a Cowbird or just an earlier hatch?…

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  • Now See This

    Azaleas in the Vale.

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  • Swarm

    At first they rise like little puffs of smoke from their ground nest. Then more and more of them emerge, small and unwieldy fliers, swarming into the humid air. They are termite reproductives, and a swarm of them brings birds to gobble them from the air. Stand there and watch as barn and tree swallows…

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  • Marsh Wren

    A early evening walk in Brooklyn Bridge Park interrupted by a small, incessantly burbling bird at the northernmost of the Freshwater Garden ponds on Pier One. I spent quite a while listening and trying to get a picture of this elusive Marsh Wren (Cistothorus palustris), a bird fairly common in marshy areas, but not so…

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  • Manitoga

    Making up the team “More is More,” my friend Sarah and I won second place in the Open House NY Modern Architecture and Design Scavenger Hunt earlier this spring. We claimed our prize last weekend: a guided tour of Manitoga, the Russell Wright Design Center, near Garrison, NY. I have to admit I’d never heard…

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