by Susan Shea BROOKFIELD – For thousands of years, people have decorated their homes with evergreen boughs, a symbol of eternal life, during the darkest time of the year around the winter solstice and Christmas. In addition to common species such as spruce and fir, I’ve noticed another evergreen in[Read More…]
The Outside Story
Pine Siskins Irrupting
by Meghan McCarthy McPhaul FRANCONIA, N.H. – If you are prone to looking up as you walk (or pedal or drive) among trees, you may have noticed a bumper crop of cones clinging to the highest branches of white pine trees this summer and fall. Around my yard, the red[Read More…]
Muscling Through Migration
by Doug Facey BURLINGTON – During the autumn months, many birds migrate from their summer breeding grounds in the Northeast to warmer wintering areas south of our region. Migratory birds include many species of raptors and waterfowl, which we often notice because of the birds’ large size and their tendency[Read More…]
Buckthorn is Tenacious Invasive
by Jenna O’del COVENTRY, R.I. – Of all the non-native, invasive plants in the Northeast, buckthorns are among the most hated by forest stewards. There are two types of invasive buckthorn in our region: glossy buckthorn (Frangula alnus) and common buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica), also called European buckthorn. Both plants grow[Read More…]
A Witch in The Woods
by D. Glenn Miller CONNECTICUT — In late autumn, well past the showy blossoms of summer, after even fall’s late bloomers have faded and the trees have dropped their leaves, there is one shrubby plant still putting on a flower show: American witch hazel (Hamamelis virginiana). Four slender, wrinkly yellow[Read More…]
Caterpillar Club Fungi are More Than Meets the Eye
by Rachel Sargent Mirus EAST CORINTH – “Look!” I exclaimed, bending to examine a pair of half-inch-tall, bright orange, club-shaped mushrooms. Kneeling in the leaf litter, with my 2-year-old son watching in puzzlement, I carefully scraped away at the base of the colorful clubs. Just beneath the soil was a[Read More…]
Moose in Rut are Laser-focused
by Susan Shea RANDOLPH – On an October day years ago, my husband and I were canoeing on a pond in the Green Mountain National Forest. We heard crashing in the bushes along the shoreline just before a magnificent bull moose with large antlers appeared. He plunged into the water[Read More…]
If a Tree Falls in the Woods, It Creates Opportunity
by Declan McCabe BURLINGTON – In May of this year, when a cottonwood measuring nearly 3 ½ feet in diameter and more than 100 feet tall fell across a trail in the Saint Michael’s College Natural Area, I saw the event less as a tragedy, and more as a circle[Read More…]
Buttonbush Is a Boon for Wildlife
by Colby Galliher NEW ENGLAND – As autumn begins and insect populations dwindle, many waterfowl species rely increasingly on seeds as a food source. Common buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis), with its spherical bouquets of seeds now ripening, provides food for an array of ducks, geese, and other wetland denizens. Buttonbush’s range[Read More…]
Why Do Some Mushrooms Glow in the Dark?
by Rachel Sargent Mirus DERRY, N.H. – I recently found myself sitting in the crawl space of my house holding a bioluminescent mushroom. I’d been on a quest to find one of these light-producing mushrooms and, on my birthday, had collected a jack o’lantern (Omphalotus illudens), so named for its[Read More…]
The Peculiar Acorn Pip Gall Wasp
by Jen Weimer Hillsborough, N.H. — In northern New England, acorns ripen in late summer and normally drop from oak trees from September through October. They may fall earlier, however, for a host of reasons, from eager squirrels getting a head start on gathering nuts for the winter to environmental[Read More…]