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.”

  • Raptor Wednesday

    Yes, it’s this one again, the wing-gapped male. Here he is atop St. Michael’s stupa-esque tower, the highest point around for many blocks. This is more generally the perching place of local Peregrines.

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    Raptor Wednesday

  • Warblers

    Warblers, amirite?

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    Warblers

  • The Pits

    I’ve seen a lot of abused tree pits in this town: bricked up, rubbled up, garbaged up, shitted up. Turned into parking for two-wheeled-vehicles of various sorts, with long chains around the tree. I’ve seen ’em treeless and I’ve seen ’em completely filled up with a rectangle of horizontal tree growth, like roots come to…

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    The Pits

  • Sunday Moths and …

    Packard’s Wave/Cyclophora packardi Faint-spotted Angle/Digrammia ocelinata Citrine Sallow/Pyreferra citrombra Now for some moth larvae: Spongy Moth/Lymantria dispar on Northern Red Oak. This chewed up, crumped up Northern Red Oak leaf had a small caterpillar inside: Maybe a member of the Tortricide Leafroller family. When I opened up the leaf shelter, it hurriedly escaped, dropping quickly…

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    Sunday Moths and …

  • Brooding

    Remember those American Robin eggs from May 4th? At that time, there was no parent around. Here’s the view on May 15th. (I’m not getting close enough to flush the bird.)

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    Brooding

  • Little One

    I would have been hard pressed to figure out what this was if a parent bird hadn’t been foraging and chipping nearby.

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    Little One

  • Bugging Out

    Narcissus Build Fly/Merodon equestris Common Eastern Bumblebee/Bombus impatiens This weekend I’ll be doing two of my Bugging Out walks for Green-Wood Cemetery. Details on the Tours page. Nomada genus bee, maybe N. luteoloides.

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    Bugging Out

  • Raptor Wednesday

    American Kestrels should start start fledging by the end of the month. This is, I think, the male of the nearby nest I’ve been watching. A trio of Red-tailed Hawks. I think the one at the top, further up in the sky, is unrelated, checking out the scene. The two lower ones are, I think,…

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  • Not Least of All

    Construction at Sylvan Water, Green-Wood Cemetery’s largest pond, has necessitated a severe lowering of the water level. Mud or murk, flats have resulted. This has attracted some Solitary Sandpipers and both waterthrushes. But pictured today is a rarer visitor to the interior of the borough: Least Sandpier/Calidris minutilla. The bird, in seeming response to a…

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    Not Least of All

  • Goslings

    The fencing here surrounds one side of an empty warehouse building. Canada Geese are on both sides of the fencing. Sharp eyes will see at least three of the feral cats in the mix at well. I counted sixteen goslings in the area on Saturday, not including the ones in the water at nearby Bush…

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    Goslings