NEW ENGLAND – Among the blooming perennials of late summer is one that guards its secrets closely. The lockbox blossoms of white turtlehead (Chelone glabra), a native plant in the plantain family, are an ideal match for the powerhouses of the pollinator world: Bombus (bumblebee) species. Turtlehead is found along[Read More…]

RANDOLPH – A yellowthroat warbler sang, “witchety, witchety, witch,” as I carefully made my way through the tangle of an alder swamp one afternoon not long ago. I looked about, hoping to catch a glimpse of its yellow breast and black mask. I could hear the twangs of green frogs[Read More…]

NEW HAVEN — Hyla Howe trudged through the high grass. She scanned the ground and took note: red clover, sedge, canary reed. Each plant said something about whether the field would be a good spot for bobolinks.  Suddenly came a wave of R2-D2 chirps as 40 or more the birds[Read More…]

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Perhaps you saw the flyers at your town office or a warning sign posted at your favorite swimming hole. The smell might have driven you home, but maybe you crept closer, unable to see anything wrong but unnerved by the deserted shoreline on such a hot and[Read More…]

NEW ENGLAND – Survey the insects orbiting a globe of milkweed blossoms or the delicate blooms of a chokeberry, and you might spy an apparent chimera. It looks a bit like a bee, perhaps a tad like a wasp, and it darts and pauses mid-flight like a hummingbird. These diminutive[Read More…]

READING – Twenty years ago, at this time of year, I found myself walking the margin of a marsh in east-central Vermont with Bob Popp, Vermont’s state botanist at that time. We had traveled to that particular site because it showed promise as potential habitat for the rare northeastern bulrush.[Read More…]

EAST CORINTH − Every summer I go blueberry picking and I notice the many colors of blueberries, from the luminous indigo of unpicked berries on a bush, which turn nearly black after handling, to the deep red-purple stain they leave on fingers and fabric. What makes these berries so colorful?[Read More…]

MILLBROOK, N.Y. – On a warm summer morning, you’re sitting in your yard enjoying a slow moment, when a flash of color catches your eye. Bright orange and black wings dance through the air before alighting on a purple coneflower. There’s a good chance your first thought is “monarch butterfly.”[Read More…]

VERMONT – Invasive plants, new housing development and climate change are boosting tick populations in Vermont, officials say, prompting new concerns about diseases the tiny arachnids carry.  Although ticks have been present for a long time in Vermont, the population has grown substantially, said Patti Casey, environmental surveillance program director[Read More…]

HOPKINTON, N.H. – One recent morning, trying to find the source of a warbler trill high in a white pine tree, I was rewarded with a brilliant flash of orange. It was my first sighting of a Blackburnian warbler, one of the most beautiful songbirds in the northern woods.  While[Read More…]

Coventry, R.I. – The river roars in the heat of the summer. The water is clear and cool, and a respite from the high sun. An angler leans back, fly-fishing rod in hand, and casts it forward. The fly drops and sinks into the water. Hopefully a fish will bite.[Read More…]