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.”

  • Raptor Wednesday

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  • Dirt Bank Dramas

    A small patch of bare, hard-packed earth is a fairly rare thing around here. At least three species of ground-nesting bees were using it. American Miner is the only one I feel confident about identifying. Not all the bees make it. A Pseudomethoca velvet ant, which is actually a wingless female wasp, was most unexpected.…

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  • It’s Still Mountain Mint Time

    Bombus away! This was two days after the visit detailed yesterday. It was less humid and windier. Two-spotted Bumble Bee/Bombus bimaculatus European Drone Fly/Eristalis arbustorum Eastern Carpenter Bee/Xylocopa virginica An unknown skipper. Great Black Digger Wasp/Sphex pensylvanicus Great Golden Digger Wasp/Sphex ichneumoneus Euodynerus hidalgo ssp. hidalgo Painted Lady/Vanessa cardui One of those sweat bees… Eastern Cicada-killer Wasp/Sphecius…

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  • Mountain Mint Time

    Mexican Grass-carrying Wasp/Isodontia mexicana Bombus Megachile Sachem/Atalopedes campestris Hump-backed Beewolf/Philanthus gibbosus Common Eastern Physocephala/Physocephala tibialis Hidalgo Mason Wasp/Euodynerus hidalgo Lunate Longhorn-cuckoo Bee/Triepeolus lunatus Two-spotted Longhorn Bee/Melissodes bimaculatus Bombus Four-banded Stink Bug Wasp/Bicyrtes quadrifasciatus. (Males have five bands.) Pycnanthemum.

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  • Tatterdemalion

    Eastern Tailed Blue with her hindwings, and tails, shredded. Painted Lady with a big chunk of one hindwing gone. Question Mark, ditto. Just enough to still fly for this Red Admiral.

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  • Bush Terminal Activity

    Knapweed (Centaurea) is a draw for this big Golden Northern Bumble Bee/Bombus fervidus. And for this European Small-Woolcarder Bee/Pseudoanthidium nanum. This relatively recent introduction to North America loves this plant. Another Golden Northern in a bindweed flower. Nearby this Cerceris weevil wasp was lurking or resting. And, for a finale, a female Monarch laying eggs on…

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  • Ravens

    Atop the Temple of Peregrines, three of the four Common Ravens seen last week. Some of these must surely be members of the ravenous, rambunctious, and raucous Class of 2023…

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  • Raptor Wednesday

    Two male American Kestrels. The lower one, whining incessantly, was a begging juvenile. Who’s your daddy?

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  • Orange Swirl

    The color of these pollen bundles! Not sure if the pollen is all from these mountain mints, in bloom now and virtual crack for pollinators, or a mix of flowers, but the pattern is delicious.

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  • The Mayor of Sylvan Water

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