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.”

  • True Bugs Continued

    All ages of Large Milkweed Bugs/Oncopeltus fasciatus may be seen congregating on Common Milkweed pods this time of year. To grow, nymphs need to shed the exoskeletons of their former selves. I caught this one just about to shake off the last of the husk or exuvia. An empty shell remains.

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    True Bugs Continued

  • Buggy

    An adult Eastern Boxelder Bug/Boisea trivittata. A true bug, of the order Hemiptera: they are suckers, not chewers like beetles. Also, unlike beetles, they have several nymphal stages or instars before they become adult (reproductives). Beetles go from egg to larva to adult. I saw these nymph Boxelder Bugs nearby:

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    Buggy

  • Alley Oop

    A narrow space between buildings on 36th Street here in Brooklyn. It’s a case study of opportunistic invasive species: Tree-of-heaven/Ailanthus altissima, at the front left; with what I think is Siberian elm/Ulmus pumila below it. Above is Princess Tree/Paulownia tomentosa. In the back and in bloom: Japanese Knotweed/Reynoutria japonica. This is a another look of…

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    Alley Oop

  • Raptor Wednesday

    Two males around the same time, in close proximity. This one caught and ate a dragonfly. Earlier, this bird had been on the chapel, where the cross used to be before a lightning bolt blew it up last summer. (The difference the Sun makes….)

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    Raptor Wednesday

  • Pigeons In The Trees

    Pigeons have been congregating on Common Hackberry branches barely strong enough to hold them. They are plucking off and eating the Nipplegalls created by Pachypsylla celtidismamma psyllids.

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    Pigeons In The Trees

  • Monarch Monday

    Eleven more Monarchs on Thursday. Mostly eggs, on… … Common Milkweed sproutlings. And some caterpillars. This one is 15mm long. On grass right next to a small Common Milkweed. Adult male feeding on Butterfly Milkweed. This caterpillar’s about 5mm long. From Saturday, a 7mm long caterpillar. Found six eggs on Friday, two on Saturday. In…

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    Monarch Monday

  • Three Pollinators

    Bumble-rumble in Rosa rugosa.

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    Three Pollinators

  • Florid

    Common Pouring-Glory/Ipomoea purpurea is out and about.

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    Florid

  • Fossils

    Two samples of *something* on the same boulder piled up around a pier at Bush Terminal Park.

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    Fossils

  • A Corner of the Hudson

    Robert F. Kennedy started out in politics as a nasty little McCarthyite. By the time of his assassination in 1968, he was pretty far removed from that. His oldest son, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has had the opposite trajectory. He started out as an environmentalist, doing good work to clean up the Hudson River. Last…

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    A Corner of the Hudson