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.”

  • The View

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  • More Raptor

    In summer, I can barely schedule Raptor Wednesdays because I don’t see all that many raptors. In fall and winter, I have a surplus. Welcome to Excess Kestrel Friday!

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  • Hornet Flight

    In late summer, I often see a European Hornets/Vespa crabro or two cruising around the pollinators. Last week, on two different days, I saw many more. In both cases, the wasps were flying around beech trees. They were hard to count and impossible to photograph in the air, but I would say maybe two dozen…

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  • Raptor Wednesday

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  • Wildflower Power

    You can still vote for an official NYC wildflower here.

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  • Last Monarch of the Year?

    A male, on October 19, in Janet’s Wildflower Meadow in Green-Wood

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  • The Book of Beaver

    I’ve seen a lot more beaver sign than actual beavers. Flooded areas, dams, lodges, and especially gnawed-off tree trunks: beavers leave a lot of signs. Castor canadensis wrote themselves across most of the continent before the fashion for beaver felt swept over from Europe. There, the native beaver, Castor fiber, had been mostly trapped out.…

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  • Autumn

    Suddenly, Autumn Meadowhawks! Thursday’s sunny temperatures in the mid 60sF brought Sympetrum vicinum out in force. Maybe more than I’ve ever seen? These are the last Odonata of the season, migratory Common Green Darners will continue to pass though, so I always keep an eye out for them.

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  • Unusual Birds

    Recently, Green-Wood has been visited by a Great Cormorant/Phalacrocorax carbo. A Western Kingbird/Tyrannus verticalis. And a Lark Sparrow/Chondestes grammacus. First time I’ve seen any of these here in the cemetery. The Lark S was in the new meadow, which the legions trampled though like Visigoths. And more sad news: the Great Cormorant…

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  • Goldenrod Hour

    A last frenzied hurrah of activity…

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