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.”

Cape May

  • Portrait

    A female Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus). An example of one of the most extreme sexual differences found among species in our area.

    mthew

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  • Wren Nest

    A nest of a Marsh Wren (Cistothorus palustris). About the size of a softball, made of woven reeds, with a side-entrance usually facing south. Males may build up to half a dozen partially completed nests in a courting area of territory before females arrive in the spring. A female who choses a particular mate/nest will…

    mthew

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  • Field Trip: Cape May

    Rothko sunrise on the big beach at Wildwood Crest on the Cape May peninsula, hanging down from New Jersey’s southeastern end like an appendix. I was on the beach about 50 minutes before sunrise, with a long row of mostly-empty-in-the-off-season motels behind me, and the Sanderlings already working the edge of the waves in the…

    mthew

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