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.”

  • Fresh Water Sushi

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  • Logrolling

    A collection of large hardwood trunks cut down in Green-Wood have been laid out by the Dell Water. The fungi are doing their stuff on them. Crystal Brain/Myxarium nucleatum Diatrype Gilled Polypore/Trametes betulina Other Trametes And, under the bark of Beech/Fagus, are the curvy paths of beetle larvae…

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  • December Bugs

    I added 211 new species to my iNaturalist tally this year, even if I can’t be quite sure of species-level ID in every case. Above are two of them: a scale insect that may be Oystershell Scale/Lepidosaphes ulmi and one of their predators, a Chilocorus genus twice-stabbed lady beetle. Ah, but which one? iNat’s robot…

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  • Raptor Wednesday

    A Merlin landed. I hauled up the camera to my eye and read the Battery Exhausted sign. Quickly loading the spare, I got off a few pictures and then glanced away. When I looked back up: This female American Kestrel was up there. No sign of the Merlin. This Kestrel really does rule around the…

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  • Sap

    In the cones of Baldcypress/Taxodium distichum this time of year, you can find an orange sap.

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  • Common Raven

    I think it’s awfully sporting of the local Common Ravens to announce themselves as they fly. by. But then, we go way back (well, at least until 2015).

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  • Ardea herodias

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  • Pattern

    Taxodium leaves afloat.

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  • November Insects

    Not counting the various bees, flies, dragonflies, and butterflies I already blogged about last month, here are some of the insects I noted in Brooklyn. Above: November 5th: Pimpla pedalis. November 9th: Chinese Mantis/Tenodera sinensis November 9th: leafhopper November 11th: Tephritis pura November 14th: Neogerris hesione November 16th: Lasioglossum November 17th: False Milkweed Bug/Lygaeus turcicus…

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  • Paper Balls

    You will be assimilated… this Borg of a Dolichovespula aerial yellowjacket nest has absorbed one of the leaves of the magnolia it was built in. Here’s a nest way up a White Oak. Another magnolia-based nest, this one not too far up and rather small. One each in Horsechestnuts that weren’t too far apart. These…

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