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.”

  • Flickers

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  • Carpenters

    A couple late October Eastern Carpenter Bees/Xylocopa virginica.

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  • Misc.

    Deleting some photographs from my phone and finding a few miscellaneous delights that never made it to B&B. Poppy fruit above. (Sweet dreams…?) This stone door of a mausoleum is wearing poorly. Cutting the shrubs to make room for new plantings along 4th Avenue. An unripened conker from Bottlebrush Buckeye/Aesculus parviflora. B&W American Lady/Vanessa virginiensis.…

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  • 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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