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.”

  • Beach Corpses

    I’ve seen a good number of dead birds over the years, and I’m almost always surprised by how difficult I find it to identify their scraggly-miserable corpses. I took a look at this bill on Plumb Beach and thought…tern? But in December? Pink feet and a wide black band on the tail also pushed this…

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    Beach Corpses

  • Long-tailed Ducks

    Long-tailed Ducks/Clangula hyemalis off the Rockaway Peninsula. It’s the male who has the long tail: This is the duck formerly known as the Oldsquaw. The AOU formally changed the name in 2000. Very much a diving duck.

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    Long-tailed Ducks

  • Swallowtail

    In metal, etc., attached to fence by antenna. Artist unknown. (Typing “metal butterfly art” into ye olde search engine resulted in some gawd-awful stuff, but I like this.)

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    Swallowtail

  • Tufted Titmouse

    Not a single Tufted Titmouse was seen in Brooklyn during the day of the 2023 Christmas Bird Count. There was at least one spotted during the week surrounding the CBC, though, and I saw this one, in Green-Wood, a couple of weeks beforehand.

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    Tufted Titmouse

  • Knobbed & Channeled

    Knobbed Whelk/Busycon carica and Channeled Whelk/Busycotypus canaliculatus side-by-side. I usually see more Channeled around here, but Recently at Jacob Riis Beach, the Knobbed predominated.

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    Knobbed & Channeled

  • Raptor Wednesday

    New Year’s Day began with a Peregrine atop Mike’s Spike. Photographed here from two long avenues and two typical street blocks away.Then I looked again and saw a smaller falcon up there, likely an American Kestrel but possibly a Merlin. On the way to Staten Island, I spotted a Peregrine on the Verrazano Narrows Bridge,…

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    Raptor Wednesday

  • Fly

    Late December temperatures in the mid-50s F add a Common Drone Fly/Eristalis tenax to the very limited mix of active insects.

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  • New Year’s Owls

    Here’s one. Here’s two. Both in the same tree: Happy New Year! Another pass: this time I got those searchlight eyes on me.

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    New Year’s Owls

  • destellos naranjas en la copa de los árboles

    Details of Tatiana Arocha‘s large work at the new Sunset Park Library branch of BPL. Happy New Year’s Eve!

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    destellos naranjas en la copa de los árboles

  • Storm Leftovers

    Washed ashore at Riis Beach: what I think is a Jonah Crab/Cancer borealis claw. About a week earlier, some very large waves were recorded in nearby NJ, so the storm must have really stirred up the bottom. An American Lobster/Homarus americanus claw. Only the second time I’ve found a lobster around NYC. Lots and lots…

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