FINGER LAKES REGION, N.Y. – Before the trees put on their colorful autumnal cloaks, the newly rewilded fields at my home turn to gold and purple. New England American-aster (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae) begins blooming in August or September and continues to splash the meadows with deep purple color well into October,[Read More…]

DUXBURY – Water striders are a common sight on ponds, vernal pools, and puddles. During clear summer days, these insects seem to walk on water, a feat they accomplish through a combination of long legs that distribute their weight across the water’s surface and micro hairs that make these invertebrates[Read More…]

WHITE RIVER JUNCTION – While some outdoorsy Vermonters spend their summer leisure time fishing, boating, or gardening, others find enjoyment spotting decomposing logs along wooded trails. On a sunny June day, the Vermont Center for Ecostudies summer interns took a hike on Mount Cardigan and excitedly herped all the way to the[Read More…]

READING – Birds exist in a fluid and unpredictable world. Survival depends on remaining constantly alert, adapting and responding to encounters with predators and environmental conditions that change with the seasons, weather, and geography. But sleep is also essential, providing rest, rejuvenation, and healing. Normally, day-active (diurnal) animals sleep at[Read More…]

BROOKFIELD – Walking on a woods road beside a stream in early July, I spotted several tight clusters of butterflies perched on scat piles and on wet sand near the brook. When one of the butterflies spread its wings, I saw that its topside was black with blue shading, and[Read More…]

Ferns have grown on Earth for longer than trees and flowers, and existed well before Homo sapiens. In our region, the oldest lineage, emerging 200 million years ago, is the royal fern family (Osmundaceae), including royal, cinnamon and interrupted ferns. Named for the fertile, spore-producing pinnae that “interrupt” the rest[Read More…]

READING – If you wanted to see the Sunapee trout, you might be inclined to search in its namesake, New Hampshire’s Lake Sunapee. But this elusive fish has long been extirpated from the Granite State, and from neighboring Vermont, where it once lived in the Northeast Kingdom’s Averill Lakes. Sunapee[Read More…]

NEW ENGLAND – Behind my garden of native plants, one scrappy perennial holds its own among the tangle of goldenrod stalks and blackberry brambles. Its swaying flowerheads buzz with a throng of insects: golden digger and great black wasps, bumblebees, sweat bees, butterflies, and beetles. This pollinator magnet is mountain-mint.[Read More…]

WHITE RIVER JUNCTION – Everyone knows the deer fly–but do you really know the deer fly?  With approximately 29 species in the genus  Chrysops  in Vermont, there is a lot to know. For example, larvae can live up to three years as decomposers and predators in water, and the eyes[Read More…]

WHITE RIVER JUNCTION – Nearing the top of Mount Cardigan, Dr. Desirée Narango and I stopped in our tracks after hearing the characteristic “teacher-teacher-teacher” call of an Ovenbird (Seiurus aurocapilla), whom she affectionately calls the “chickens” of the forest. Although we heard the bird, it was nowhere in sight. So, Dr.[Read More…]

WHITE RIVER JUNCTION – I really don’t like weeding. So it was with great pleasure when, just moments into the task, I spotted a dragonfly acting strangely on a nearby plant. What immediately caught my eye was a pile of tiny, red, egg-like sacs all over its thorax. I ran[Read More…]

WHITE RIVER JUNCTION – Nearing the top of Mount Cardigan, Dr. Desirée Narango and I stopped in our tracks after hearing the characteristic “teacher-teacher-teacher” call of an Ovenbird (Seiurus aurocapilla), whom she affectionately calls the “chickens” of the forest. Although we heard the bird, it was nowhere in sight. So, Dr.[Read More…]