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.”

  • A walk in Massachusetts

    I took a walk last week in Bradford, which is just south of the Merrimack River from Haverhill. It was a hot day to start, but most of the road was shadowed by trees. I went down South Cross, Boxford and Lily Pond Roads, to the Four Corners Golf Course, and turned back, an easy…

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  • Catching Up

    While I was out of town, I was away from all connections to the innernets for a full five days. One day, I had the opportunity to check my e-mail, but said, no thanks, why bother. I was drinking very good Scotch at the time, and eating homemade scallion & jack nachos in New Hampshire.…

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  • Beach-combing

    I could spend the rest of my life beach-combing. You never know what will turn up. Previous discoveries have included an enormous leatherback turtle and a piece of whale vertebrae, although, admittedly, neither of these was in the New York Bight/Hudson River estuary system region. This small fish was. I found it, quite desiccated, on…

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  • Field Notes: Galls II

    Today is Oak Apple Day, celebrating the restoration of Charles II, who famously hid in an oak during the English Civil War. Pity he got away. Anyway, this post is about oaks, oak galls, and/or oak gall wasps, whichever come first, not my vigorous and patriotic anti-royalism. When last we discussed galls, I kept the…

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  • Back 40 and Beyond Spiders

    Look closely and you will see that this jumping spider, found in my backyard, has some prey. And you just have to look closely to see how well this one blends into the sand. Found on a Brooklyn beach. It had turned over on itself in a sandy depression and pulled in all its legs.…

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  • In the Back 40

    A sunflower maggot fly, Strauzia longipennis. Scoping out my sunflowers, which have not yet budded. You can’t really see the red in the eye in my photo, so take a look at this image.

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  • Geological Ruminations

    I wish I knew more about geology. It is not a subject suitable for book learnin’. Still, I’m interested. My samples of NYC regional rock include Manhattan schist, purplish diabase from the Palisades Sill, and Staten Island serpentine. But poor Brooklyn, being terminal moraine and outwash plain, is just a jumble of gravel and clays…

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  • Black-Crowned Night heron

    Scene at the Lake in Prospect Park. Although the black-crowned night heron, Nycticorax nycticorax, will eat just about anything it can swallow, these red eared sliders look a tad too large. (Still, the tableau does give the impression of a vulture waiting for the cowpokes to die.) The most widely spread of the herons, N.…

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  • Great Egret

    Ardea alba in the Valley Water, Green-Wood Cemetery. Once nearly exterminated for their feathers, which plumed ladies’ hats.

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  • Shhh…

    Is there a color more beautiful than robin’s egg blue? This is the nest I posted a picture of last week. It was, after all, a brand new nest. So in the park now, you can see young fledged robins, hopping and flying about; you can see nestling robins, all mouth, gaping for food above…

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