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.”

  • Some Fluff

    Pretty sure this is off a Great Horned Owl. Because nearby were also: and:

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  • Not So Common

    Grooming wasp on a leaf. Such yellow and black wasps get called yellowjackets, but that’s not a species-specific term. This one looks like it could be a ground yellowjacket of the genus Vespula. We have at least five Vespula species in NYC, the most common being Eastern/V. maculifrons and the introduced German/V. germanica, which has…

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  • Everybody’s Eating

    From a distance, without benefit of optics, I thought this was a worm with grass still attached to it. But no, this Northern Mockingbird definitely has a mantid. Predator versus predator…

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  • Butterflies

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  • Nom-nom-nom

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  • Raptor Wednesday

    You will have guessed that my eyes have been glued to the old Chapel in Green-Wood since a lightning bolt blew up the cross atop it in July. I’ve been waiting to see American Kestrels back up there. On Friday, I saw a female fly to the perch. About 45 minutes earlier, I spotted a…

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  • Dog Days

    Dog-day cicada nymphs typically climb up trees to shed their exuviae. Sometimes on smaller plants, like shrubs, grasses. And sometimes human structures, for which I give their sharp little toes credit. I found these at the base of a mature oak. The tree itself had this on it: On August 17th, I heard the Dog…

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  • Wasp Work

    After scraping about a body’s length of wood pulp off a sapling-supporting pole, this Bald Faced Hornet/Dolichovespula maculata moved upwards about a body’s length to start again: Note how quickly the initial cut dries back to gray. The wood pulp collected this way is the basis for the paper that makes up the enveloping structure…

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  • Wallace 200

    I’m a big fan of the cover of James T. Costa’s new biography of Alfred Russel Wallace, who was born two hundred years ago in Wales. Most biography covers would of course go with a picture of the subject. In this case: yet another bearded Victorian. Wallace certainly sported the ample facial hair of his…

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  • Illustrated Pin Oak

    Just inside the Brooklyn Botanical Garden’s Eastern Parkway entrance is a Pin Oak/Quercus palustris brought down intentionally because of disease/safety. They’ve split the tree vertically and displayed it horizontally.

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