Boiling maple sap into syrup is a time honored tradition in the Northeast, to the olfactory delight of anyone who has spent time in a steamy sugarhouse while inhaling the sweet maple scent of the season. It used to be […]
Category: The Outside Story
The Outside Story: A new invasive is Zigzagging across North America
There’s a new invasive insect zigzagging its way across North America. First reported by citizen scientists in Quebec in 2020, the elm zigzag sawfly (Aproceros leucopoda) has now spread to North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts, and […]
The Outside Story: The humble acorn: A feast for wildlife
In a big mast year for oak trees, it seems like there’s a constant barrage of acorns thwacking roofs, parked cars, and — sometimes — unsuspecting humans. These falling nuts can seem a nuisance. But when I look closely at […]
The Outside Story: How ebbing snow cover effects plants and animals
When it comes to winter in the North Country, brown is not beautiful. Climate change has brought sudden and extreme fluctuations in weather along with a dramatic decline in the amount of snowfall that blankets the ground. This is especially […]
The Outside Story: A tale of two grosbeaks
Last February, several evening grosbeaks, which we rarely see here, visited our feeder. About the size of robins, the males were yellow with black and white wings, a black tail, and a bright yellow band above the eyes. The […]
The Outside Story: Red velvet mites in winter
Bright red, soft, and velvety … no, I’m not describing a Valentine’s Day decoration, but a red velvet mite. Built like eight-legged, scarlet Beanie Babies, red velvet mites are hard to miss, even though most of them are no bigger […]
The Outside Story: Discovering Orion
You know Orion always comes up sideways. Throwing a leg up over our fence of mountains, And rising on his hands, he looks in on me… So wrote Robert Frost in his poem “The Star-splitter.” The aesthetic wonder of this […]
The Outside Story: Pine Cones: The Complicated Lives of Conifer Seeds
My yard is full of Eastern white pine trees, and every three years or so, it is full of pine cones. This is one of those years. Pine cones have fallen all over the yard, the sidewalk, the driveway. The […]
The Outside Story: The phenomenon of winter light
In mid-winter 1988, I went contra-dancing at the Congregational Church in Lyme, New Hampshire. During intermission, I joined other dancers who stepped out of the overheated hall into a star-studded night alive with shimmering waves of color, from blue […]
American tree sparrows: Hardy winter visitors
Most winters, a few sparrows visit my yard, feeding on the seeds I scatter on the ground near my bird feeder. These particular sparrows have long tails, rusty crowns and eye-lines on their gray heads, and a distinctive dark breast […]