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.”

  • Smile

    Bramble Mason Wasp/Ancistrocerus adiabatus Smiling Mason Wasp/Ancistrocerus campestris Bramble Mason Wasp/Ancistrocerus adiabatus Smiling Mason Wasp/Ancistrocerus campestris European Tube Wasp/Ancistrocerus gazella Three of the local Eumeninae potter and mason wasp species sport a smile-like pattern of two scuttellum spots and one transverse band on the metanotum. (There’s another regional smiler, Ancistrocerus catskill, but I haven’t come…

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  • Raptor Wednesday

    A “Marlin hauke,” if I’m reading Thomas Hariot correctly. His 1588 Brief and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia is the first recorded account of bird-watching in North America, though of course the locals had been doing it for thousands of years already. The Merlin (Pigeon Hawk, Lady Hawk) would have been…

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  • Swiftly

    I measure out the seasons in Chimney Swift sightings. Last Friday around 5:40 pm, a dozen or more, probably more (it’s hard to count ’em when they harum-scarum the sky), were over the park and surrounding blocks. It might have been the last big hurrah of the year.

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  • Fall Yellows (and other colors)

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  • 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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