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.”

Sunset Park

  • Home Turf

    The block across the street is made up of yellow brick bow-fronted row houses which are, thankfully for my view from the 4th floor, only 2.5 stories high. One of these houses has a cage frame for an air-condidtioner in its second story window. There’s no air-conditioner, but there is what looks like some kind of plastic…

  • Smoke On The Water

    Yesterday’s bone-cold weather created an interesting phenomenon that made it look like the Upper Harbor was smoking. The combination of very cold air, zero on the Fahrenheit scale and feeling even colder because of the wind, and the warmer water made for a kind of low level fog clumping and billowing on the blue harbor.…

  • Sunset Park Elm

    Somebody needs a haircut.

  • Day Hawk

    Hello!An overcast day, but from a distance a shape in a tree along the edge of Sunset Park attracts the eye.Accipiters aren’t known for perching long. This Cooper’s stuck around long enough for me to go inside and return with my camera. My lens is better than my eyes: the gory remains of lunch are…

  • Another Sunset Park Elm

    Knots, galls, cankers? Whatever is going on here makes for a massive bole. This is one of a pair in front of an apartment named Elmo…

  • Sunset Park Elm

    Solar powered.

  • Sunset Park Elm

    At dawn. Still at dawn, but with a different filter. These were taken after last weekend’s blizzard.

  • Sunset Park Elm

    A long-shot from the apartment yesterday morning. The night before, Friday, when the snow started, I was looking out the window about 11pm. It was a white night, the lights of the city bouncing down from the low clouds. A large bird came from overhead, just a story or two higher than my fourth floor.…

  • Storm Birds

    There’s a surprising amount of bird activity out there. Pigeons are being driven laterally by the wind. An occasional gull is visible in the gull-colored sky. House Sparrows sweep across sidewalks and the gated little yards across the street on the hunt for food. Starlings flocking in a small Chinese Scholar tree gobble the hanging…