STANFORD, Calif. – Light in the evening brings the first sign of spring’s arrival. Before the snow has fully melted or any scraps of green start to appear, those lengthening days are a promise. Just when I’ve forgotten the world was ever anything except cold and gray, I’ll step outside[Read More…]
The Outside Story
Gobbling, strutting: wild turkey mating season
WASHINGTON, D.C. – At this time of year, wild eastern turkeys are still congregated in the flocks of 20 or so birds with which they spend the winter. Groups of hens, mature female turkeys, will generally winter with the broods they raised the previous summer. Toms, mature male turkeys, spend[Read More…]
Backyard neighbor: the song sparrow
Brookfield – In early March, birds that have been gone all winter begin appearing at my feeder. One of the earliest of these spring migrants is a brown-backed sparrow with a white breast coarsely streaked with brown. The streaks converge in a dark central breast spot, an easy identification mark.[Read More…]
Two fishers meet in the winter woods
DEER ISLAND, Me. – Fishers (Pekania pennanti) have a reputation as the northern forests’ ultimate misanthropes. These mesocarnivores are so territorial that within six to eight months after their birth, young fishers are unceremoniously pushed out of their mother’s home range to fend for themselves. This forced eviction leads to[Read More…]
Seeds, frazil, and flocs: the story of ice
HANOVER, N.H. – Mile-long Trout Brook cuts downhill through heavily bouldered glacial moraine in the Indian Ridge area of western New Hampshire. Like any woodland brook, it features waterfalls, cascades, pools and coves. By mid-December it is usually frozen over, with audible water running under the ice and snow. Only[Read More…]
Tiny king of the winter woods: Golden-crowned Kinglets
MILLBROOK, N.Y. – The morning after a nighttime snowfall evokes feelings of newness and wonder. If the air is calm and the trees still retain their coat of fluffy white, I immediately bundle up and head out to explore. I trudge into the woods looking and listening for signs of[Read More…]
Bundling Up: Soil Microbes in Winter
VERMONT – Like any good animal, we sense the change of seasons through a hundred subtle clues. Leaves change and shed, becoming crispy piles underfoot. Geese cross the bright sky. Other signs of winter are harder to define: the morning chill deepens its bite, the afternoon light becomes pale. Although[Read More…]
Phantoms of the North: Great Gray Owls
BURLINGTON – The great gray owl (Strix nebulosa) is a northern raptor that only occasionally graces our northeastern states. Also called the phantom of the north, these owls have large facial discs with alternating areas of light and dark gray, creating a concentric ring pattern around their yellow eyes. Beneath[Read More…]
Life beneath ice, snow: turtles in winter
NEW ENGLAND – For hundreds of years, people believed that, come autumn, barn swallows would dive under the surface of ponds and lakes, swim to the bottom, and bury themselves in the mud for the winter. We now know better. Swallows, along with thousands of other avian species across the[Read More…]
Rare winter flicker of red, yellow
NEW ENGLAND – While many of our region’s colorful birds fly south for the cold months, resident woodpeckers offer a reliable contrast to this season’s monochrome palette. A pileated woodpecker’s blazing crest and the miniature red cap of a hairy woodpecker brighten the gray-and-white doldrums. But few avian winter wardrobes[Read More…]
What three decades of monitoring birds reveal about changing forests
WHITE RIVER JUNCTION – Deep in the Vermont forests, the flute-like call of the Hermit Thrush drifts through the understory and the Blackburnian Warbler’s song carries from the canopy, both reminders of the diversity and complexity woven into Vermont’s forest ecosystems. But this dawn chorus of breeding birds is shifting.[Read More…]
Crunching through a forest of needle ice
DUXBURY – On an early winter walk with my three-year-old in a local town forest, we heard our steps crunch on the frozen ground. The dirt of the trail had been pushed up on delicate columns of ice that looked like a pale sugar candy. “Why is it like ribbon[Read More…]
