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.”

  • 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

  • Raptor Wednesday

    Female and male American Kestrel. I think the female is a youngster. Meanwhile, nearby at the Neo-gothic gatehouse, another pair were chasing each other about.

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    Raptor Wednesday

  • A Wild Butterfly Chase

    On Saturday, a large lime-colored butterfly was racing around Janet’s Meadow in Green-Wood. I spent about fifteen minutes watching it zoom back and forth, across, and over the plants. Just as I was about to give up on it ever alighting anywhere, it started briefly perching on Partridge Pea plants. A Cloudless Sulphur/Phoebis sennae, if…

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    A Wild Butterfly Chase