WASHINGTON, D.C. — When the winter snow melts and the spring rain begins, vernal pools appear on the landscape. These ephemeral wetlands form in depressions in forests or ridge lines and offer essential breeding habitat to amphibians and invertebrates, including wood frogs, spotted salamanders and fairy shrimp. Because vernal pools[Read More…]

LOWELL, Mass. — You’re probably familiar with the basic amphibian life plan: start as a wriggly water-breathing tadpole, transform into an adult that breathes air. This is the pattern followed by all our frogs and toads, and our mole salamanders as well. Enter the eastern newt, an amphibian with three[Read More…]

BOLTON — Rudbeckia hirta. Solanum lycopersicum. Acer saccharum. Have you ever seen these names on plant tags or seed packets and wondered where they came from? We can thank Carl Linnaeus for taxonomy, the study of categorizing and naming organisms, and binomial nomenclature, the precise, two-termed naming system we use[Read More…]

HOPKINTON, N.H. — In early spring, a reddish haze appears in the woodlands. With most deciduous trees still dormant, the red maples are living up to their name. Their awakening buds lend color to a gray landscape and signal that spring is coming. I love watching the steady progression of[Read More…]

BURLINGTON — While Earth orbits the Sun on the Ecliptic plane, the Moon orbits Earth along a different orbital that is shifted by about 5 degrees from the Ecliptic Plane (see figure above). During an eclipse season, the Moon crosses the Ecliptic Plane twice at a time when the Earth,[Read More…]

WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — From the Northeast Kingdom to the Massachusetts border, and from the Connecticut River to the waters of Lake Champlain, Vermont’s teaming birding community once again took part in the Vermont e-Bird County Quest in 2024. Marking the 14th year, this event continued to bolster Vermont’s enormous database[Read More…]

HARDWICK – I was kayaking in mid-September with my partner in New Hampshire. We got out of our boats on the backside of the lake to explore the shoreline a bit. We saw abundant signs of wildlife on the sandy shore. We walked a ways and then returned to our[Read More…]

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — As steam rises from sugarhouse cupolas and early morning coffee pots, sugarmakers are working overtime to turn maple sap into golden syrup. But as it turns out, they aren’t alone: other living things are sugaring too, and their stories affect the syrup that is poured on[Read More…]

READING – While many are still basking in the afterglow of the total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024, a lunar eclipse is about to have its day in the sun. In the early hours of March 14, a total lunar eclipse will be visible across North America. The entire[Read More…]

HILLSBOROUGH, N.H. – The new year ushered in an Arctic blast that has only recently let up. This extreme plunge in temperature is referred to as a polar vortex. While it may seem that this is a new term, it has been in use since the 1800s. These periods of[Read More…]

Washington, D.C. – It’s a familiar sight in winter: An inky-black raven soaring over a landscape white with snow. Though similar in appearance to the American crow, the common raven (Corvus corax) is distinguished by its large size, fluffy neck feathers, and long, thick beak. The ubiquitous raven croak can[Read More…]

HARDWICK – The wren was the first to our feeder, 6:45 a.m., the snow blowing, temps around four degrees without the wind chill. A line from an old poem came into my head. “The north wind doth blow, and we shall have snow, and what will the robin do then,[Read More…]