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.”

  • Ring-billed

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    Ring-billed
  • Spring Bonus Post

    Eastern Phoebes have arrived.

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    Spring Bonus Post
  • Spring

    “The atom bombs are piling up in the factories, the police are prowling through the cities, the lies are streaming from the loudspeakers, but the earth is still going around the sun, and neither the dictators nor the bureaucrats, deeply as they disapprove of the process, are able to prevent it.” George Orwell, “Some Thoughts…

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    Spring
  • And Another Gull

    Another big, white-winged gull on Pier 4 at Brooklyn Army Terminal. (This pier is used as a parking lot, so get there early before all the parking spaces are filled up and the gulls head out for their day’s business.) Glaucous Gull/Larus hyperboreus. A visitor from the far north. The Iceland Gull was also there.

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  • Raptor Wednesday

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    Raptor Wednesday
  • Ravens

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    Ravens
  • Waste Not

    Another goose down. And this one shows the most severest signs of being scavenged.

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    Waste Not
  • Ravens Three

    Two Ravens chased each other around and around while one waited on the rim of the smokestack The rival, I presume, was chased off. This was actually the second time on this day that I saw two Ravens battling it out in the sky as another flew behind them. I couldn’t get my camera on…

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    Ravens Three
  • Raisin…

    Well dried fruit, anyway.

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    Raisin…