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.”

  • Two

    1. I saw Comet Pan Starrs tonight from the Brooklyn Promenade. It was just above a bruise-colored haze bank (alas, poor Jersey!) over Ellis Island. The tail was quite diaphanous. It was my second try at spotting it, with an interval of poor weather in between. Not visible to the naked eye, it was easy…

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  • Marshall

    When I see people get excited by the enormous hollow, or hard white-centered, strawberry-like products marketed across the land most of the year, I despair. It’s tragic that so many consumers have been conditioned by a cynical agricultural industry to think that these nasty things are what strawberries are supposed to be. I protest by…

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  • Winged

    How the mighty have fallen. Eros, the Greek god of love, was originally one of the primordial powers, portrayed as a cruel winged youth against whom neither immortal nor mortal was safe. By the Hellanistic period, however, he had been domesticated, and turned into a plump baby-like figure, the son of Aphrodite, of which this…

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  • Persephone

    While failing to see the rare-for-our-parts Varied Thrush that has been in Prospect Park for a few days, I otherwise noted: two raccoons slowly uncurling high in a tree crotch; one darting chipmunk; a dozen turtles crawled up on shore and rocks of the Pools to warm up after so many water-chilled months; a Red-tailed…

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  • Problem Swans

    With their long necks, Mute swans (Cygnus olor) can reach down to food that other geese can’t. Although loved by many, these swans are an invasive species, introduced to the U.S. to picturesque ponds and estates. Since then, they’ve escaped and established breeding populations in Prospect Park, among quite a few other places. Their aggressive…

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  • Mit Schnee bedeckt

    The monument to the great geographer Alexander von Humboldt was clumped in yesterday’s wet snow at Explorer’s Gate, Central Park West and 77th Street. And in my own neighborhood:The snow seems to outline the bones of the trees. With today’s temperatures forecast for the 50s, this should all be but a soggy memory by the…

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  • Croton Point

    This Red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) was perched near the entrance of Croton Point Park as we entered and then, several hours later, as we left, albeit on the other side of the road. We recognized him by his chest plumage and streaks of russet on the neck. This is a nice walk. We take Metro…

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  • Animacula-finder

    This is a model of van Leeuwenhoek’s microscope, circa 1670. It is a few inches long and opened up a whole new microworld for humans, including the somewhat staggering activity found in ol’ Antonie’s own sperm (ah, science!). I found this model at the Grolier Club not so long ago.

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  • Kitten Tails

    Spring sneaks up on us. Little feelers of the season are already present in the city, like American Woodcocks flying down Broadway, crocuses blooming, witchhazel tendrils gnarling out from branches. I just noticed these catkins hanging on State Street. A number of plant families have these pendent flower clusters, which usually depend on wind pollination…

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  • Black Birds

    The famous “blackbird singing in the dead of night” is the (Common) Blackbird of Europe, Turdus merula. Ditto the “four and twenty” baked in a pie. The Blackbird is a thrush, part of the family Turdidae, like the American Robin, which also shares the same genus. The “thrush” appellation tells you to expect some lovely…

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