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.”

kestrels

  • Can’t Get Enough Kestrel?

    A week after spotting an American Kestrel male perching in Green-Wood I found another not so very far away. Or is this the very same bird? Mayhaps: they don’t have huge territories Check out the bird’s under and over grip on the tippy-top of the tree. And those false eye-spots on the back of the…

    mthew

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  • City Kestrels

    Or: The Importance of Falling Apart. An intriguing passage in Bernd Heinrich’s The Nesting Season about German architects incorporating nesting spaces for such cavity nesters as Eurasian kestrels, jackdaws, and swifts, in new buildings got me thinking about Bob DeCandido’s project of tracking American kestrel nest sites in old buildings in New York City. In…

    mthew

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