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…]
The Outside Story
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…]
Indigo Bunting is Celestial Creature
BURLINGTON – There is nothing like the royal blue of an indigo bunting. In the Northeast, they arrive fashionably late to the spring fling, behind the vanguard of migrating warblers and other songbirds. On my morning walk in my frequent birding spot, my “patch” as birders call it, I heard[Read More…]
How Avian Influenza Might Be Affecting Loons
VERMONT – The nature community is becoming concerned about how bird flu impacts Common Loons. Wendy Puryear with the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University, presented the latest updates at the Northeast Loon Study Working Group’s 2025 meeting, and this update draws on that, with some additional information[Read More…]
Against the Flow: Spring Alewife Run
MILLBROOK, N.Y. – One of the most exciting rites of spring is the alewife run, an annual event where throngs of fish race upstream from the ocean to inland water bodies on a reproductive journey. These “river herring,” as they are categorized, actually spend most of their lives at sea.[Read More…]
Mosquitoes in the Rain
WATERBURY – If you’re a mosquito and it’s a warm spring afternoon, you’re out cruising the air currents on your tiny wings. But as you buzz around, the sun warming your exoskeleton, the clouds roll in, heralding a spring shower. Balls of water up to 50 times heavier than your[Read More…]
