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…]
The Outside Story
Tick Populations Rise, Health Officials Urge Precautions
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…]
Treetop Gem: Brilliant Blackburnian Warbler
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…]
Fish Mouths: How Anatomy Suggests Ecology
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…]
Clean Gear to Stop Spread of Forest Pests
VERMONT – As hiking season kicks into high gear, officials from Vermont’s Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation; the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets; and the Vermont Trails and Greenways Council are urging outdoor enthusiasts to help safeguard forests by cleaning their boots, clothing and gear before and[Read More…]
Study Shows Native Cherry Trees Better Support Native Moths
WHITE RIVER JUNCTION – Native plants are great and all, but what if all they have at the garden center is a closely related, non-native species imported from Asia or Europe? Will it matter to our insect friends if you fudge the sourcing just a little bit? For a research paper published[Read More…]
Up and Down Again: How Montane Birds Navigate Spring Weather
WHITE RIVER JUNCTION – It’s a sunny day in early June, and your plan is to beat the I-93 summer crowds with a hike up the Franconia Ridge in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. But as you ascend, you reach a point where the trail disappears under a monorail[Read More…]
Life in a Shell: Eastern Box Turtle
MILLBROOK, N.Y. – As a budding naturalist growing up in the concrete-heavy environs of Boston, I would regularly thumb through my family’s collection of nature books and daydream about the creatures within. One species I was particularly drawn to was the eastern box turtle. These charismatic terrestrial turtles have high-domed[Read More…]
Helping House Bats Raise Pups
WHITE RIVER JUNCTION – Hear a new rustling up above? It could be mice. Or it could be another small, adorable, furry critter with wings. Little Brown and Big Brown Bats, also referred to as house bats, are common visitors to residences from about mid-April to October (although the Big[Read More…]
Dapper Sparrow of Underbrush: Eastern Towhee
NORTHEAST – From forest edges and thickets on late spring mornings in the Northeast comes what sounds like an exhortation from across the pond: drink-your-tea! This is not a British parent’s plea, but rather the song of a chunky, colorful sparrow: the eastern towhee. The eastern towhee (Pipilo erythrophthalmus, or[Read More…]
Support Vermont’s Pollinators in a Garden or Back Yard
VERMONT – Pollinators play a substantial role in Vermont, with 60% to 80% of the state’s wild plants dependent on them to grow, but the typical American lawn may be helping drive them toward collapse. In 2024 alone, U.S. beekeepers lost an unprecedented 70% to 100% of their managed honeybee colonies. But in Vermont,[Read More…]
Goldenrod Crab Spider Master of Disguise
BURLINGTON – On a spring morning walk, I stop to smell a painted trillium and am greeted by a goldenrod crab spider (Misumena vatia). Bending down for a sniff of the white and pink blooms, I am face to face with the perfectly camouflaged white spider, hidden thanks to a[Read More…]
