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.”

  • We Interrupt This Broadcast

    For some local bus shelter interventions. I was just decrying the paltry state of graphic public protest, for I miss the likes of Robbie Conal’s Art Attack. Turns out he is still at work: “Dick Tater,” “Supreme Injustices,” etc. I don’t know who did these B63 line posters, but they’re inside the frames. An inside

    See more

    We Interrupt This Broadcast

  • Moss Gardens

    Moss on moss. Lichen on moss.

    See more

    Moss Gardens

  • Falcon Friday

    Young Peregrine over Sunset Park. Adult Peregrine atop the butcher’s block, eating the last of what was probably a Feral Pigeon. Note how distended the falcon’s crop is: good bit of meat on a squab. Merlin. Two Merlin contesting spruce perch, older above/younger below by plumage. American Kestrel female. American Kestrel male.

    See more

    Falcon Friday

  • Poop Mold

    Dew-dappled mold on Canada Goose (probably) dropping. Look closer still and you will see these tiny clear or yellow stalked orbs of pin molds. (Impossible to photograph.)

    See more

  • Raptor Wednesday

    Sub-adult Bald Eagle. Adult Red-shouldered Hawk. Was circling with three Great Blue Herons. The next day, a juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk was going around and around. Adult Cooper’s Hawk. Red-tailed Hawk after a bath. All within a mile of home here in Brooklyn.

    See more

    Raptor Wednesday

  • November Insects

    This stinkbug was in the tub.

    See more

  • Melee

    See more

  • Fall Colors

    See more

    Fall Colors

  • Scaup

    This is the first Greater Scaup I’ve seen so close-up. Usually, they’re off-shore and you’re battling the sea wind to see them. This one was on Sylvan Water, a freshwater pond, in Green-Wood Cemetery the other day.

    See more

    Scaup

  • Etymology

    On first looking into Chapman’s Homer, or rather, let’s be real, a quotation from it in a third party, my eyes slid home on this: All done, he all to Thetis brought, and held all up to her./ She tooke them all, and like t’ hawke (surnamed Osspringer) This is the at the end of

    See more