NEW ENGLAND – As the winter sun set on February 3, 2023, the Caribou, ME., branch of the National Weather Service (NWS) was flooded with reports of seismic activity. James Sinko, the office’s hydrology program manager, recounted Mainers calling in from across the state’s Hancock, Penobscot, Piscataquis and Washington counties[Read More…]

FRANCONIA, N.H. – Walking along a dirt road last winter, I heard a collection of pleasant, sputtering trills coming from a stand of conifers and hardwoods nearby. I’m used to the winter conversation of chickadees around feeder and woods, the cawing of crows and blue jays in the yard, and[Read More…]

BROOKFIELD – During winter, I often hear gnawing and the scurrying of little feet inside the walls of our house. Mice have taken shelter in our old farmhouse again. Although I hate killing the cute creatures, after we had to hire a carpenter twice to remove sections of our walls[Read More…]

CHAMPLAIN VALLEY – When I think about winter survival, my mind first goes to wildlife: field mice curling up in nests, chickadees flocking to bird feeders, and amphibians burrowing into the mud. Rarely do I think about the adaptations of our northern species that can’t grow thicker fur, fluff up[Read More…]

WOODBURY – It took a photo, a drawing, a naturalist’s boundless curiosity, and bee experts from across the nation for Vermont to claim a new bumblebee species for the state last week. In 2008, artist and naturalist Susan Sawyer snapped a beautiful photo of a bumblebee in her yard. “I[Read More…]

VERMONT – Six years had passed without a confirmed sighting of a Canada lynx in Vermont. That all changed August 17. Over the summer, several  Rutland County residents spotted what the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department confirmed was a juvenile male Canada lynx. Since then, the department has confirmed more than 15[Read More…]

BROOKFIELD – Wandering through the woods this time of year, occasionally I’ve come across a small deciduous tree laden with cone-like structures that resemble the hops used to brew beer. This is the American, or Eastern, hophornbeam (Ostrya virginiana). A member of the birch family, hophornbeam grows in the understory[Read More…]

DUXBURY – Standing on the berm of a small pond, I watch the resident beaver leave its lodge, a silhouetted nose moving through the water. It disappears briefly and returns with a branch in tow. The beaver clambers over the edge of its dam along a muddy path, branch bouncing[Read More…]

WALTHAM, Mass. – Several weeks and many baths ago, my dog discovered a black-and-white stranger crossing our lawn. Wagging vigorously, and ignoring my frantic shouts, she ran up and offered her canine greeting: a nose-to-tail sniff. The encounter ended predictably, with the skunk waddling off into the dark, the dog[Read More…]

WALTHAM, Mass. – My friend Terry Gulick, who passed away earlier this year, used to tease me about my favorite yard tree. Terry did a lot of gardening jobs, when he wasn’t mentoring kids, and he was amused, and a little offended, by what I’d allowed to grow up in[Read More…]

BURLINGTON – For 12 summers, my Vermont colleagues and I offered guidance to high school student and teacher teams who conducted research on streams as part of a National Science Foundation EPSCoR program. These teams received training in July, and for the rest of the summer and early autumn, employed[Read More…]