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.”

Bronx

  • Water Birds

    A Great Blue Heron in up nearly to its knees. In birds, the knees are very close to the sternum; the next joint down the leg, which most people probably think is the knee, is actually the heel. What you can’t see here are all the dragon- and damselflies going about their business as the…

  • Lurking in Plain Sight

    Harvestmen or Daddy-longegs (Opiliones).

  • Damsel

    Actually, it’s the tiny fly (?) this male Orange Bluet (Enallagma signatum) has just devoured who was the subject in distress. You can see a tiny-wing leftover.

  • Pelham Bay Park

    “Only the dead know Brooklyn…” but you can say the same thing for the rest of NYC. Five massive boroughs: it’s a full-time job to explore them all. Last Saturday, we journeyed up to the eastern Bronx to visit Pelham Bay Park. Pharaoh — or should I say “Tyrant,” based on the Greco-design of the…