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.”

  • An Ology of Ornos

    When I was a boy, I lived near the entrance to Hades. Lago d’Averno north of Naples near Cumae was where Virgil located an entrance to the kingdom of the dead. I listened hard for the baying of the three-headed dog Cerberus, but never heard him. The round lake—it’s a flooded crater—turned dark red in…

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  • Mock On!

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  • Less Talk, More Eating

    A European Hornet/Vespa crabro chomps up a bee. This is a true hornet, and an introduction to North America. It’s been around since the mid-1800s. These wasps are late season, meaning I’m still seeing them in October. (They come out at night, too, but I’m rarely out at night). I’ve been on the lookout for…

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  • Wasp Talk

    Is the European Paper Wasp/Polistes dominula the most common wasp in New York City? Sure seems like it. I see one or two flying low practically everywhere I go. The orange antenna are the quickest way to separate these from other black and yellow wasps. Here’s an unusual one. Instead of yellow markings, silverish white…

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  • Raptor Wednesday

    A male American Kestrel. Black-spotted front (the female has brownish streaks) and blue wings (the female has russet wings, like the rest of her back).

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  • More Recycling

    A dead squirrel was hosting a mess of flies. A couple of Bald-faced Hornets patrolled the corpse, too. I know some Vespula ground Yellowjackets will chomp on carrion, but are the Dolichovespula doing the same? I’ve also seen them on dog droppings. Perhaps these wasps are hunting all the flies that corpses and excrement attract.…

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  • Recycling

    I don’t know if one of Saturday’s mantises got this bumble bee, but it isn’t like them to leave half of one hanging around. Anyway, waste not, want not, right? This fly has been identified as a Bermudagrass Stem Maggot/Atherigona reversura.

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  • Street Tree Massacre

    Twenty-four trees were put in this stretch of bike lane/sidewalk on 2nd Avenue next to the Brooklyn Army Terminal a couple of years ago. It’s been a slaughter: sixteen are dead. There are two Sweetgums that are on their last sprouts. All six survivors, meanwhile, are Common Hackberries.

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  • Praying for Prey

    The two introduced Tenodera species of mantises we have in NYC look very similar. The way to tell them apart is to check the colored spot between their forelimbs. Ah, but there’s the rub, isn’t it? It’s not like they want to be picked up… Orange means Tenodera angustipennis You can just see the yellow…

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  • From Zero To Three

    I’d never seen a Carolinian Elegant/Meromacrus acutus fly before this summer. Now I’ve seen three. My first was the second New York state iNat record, and the first in the city. Now there are six state records, four here in the city–which is the southernmost part of the state. The distribution has been more southernly,…

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