By Rachel Sargent Mirus Last summer while working in the garden, I was startled when a fast-flying wasp dropped a plump pumpkin spider on the soil in front of me. The wasp landed, grabbed the spider, and wiggled backwards into […]
Category: The Outside Story
How flowers get their color
By Frank Kaczmarek Sunlight exposes a palette of colors To quote the French dramatist Jean Giradoux, “The flower is the poetry of reproduction. It is an example of the eternal seductiveness of life.” Flowering plants fill our summer fields and […]
The ‘gypsy’ moths invade
By Declan McCabe Occasionally I get an email from a camp, school or even my local Rotary asking if I can present an insect program. So it was not unusual last week for me to be handing insect nets to […]
River Otters swim through Vermont’s waters
One summer day, I was relaxing on the bank of a secluded pond watching mallard ducks forage when a dark shape broke the stillness of the water. It was a North American river otter, swimming with its head and back […]
Maligned and misunderstood, the Eastern milk snake slithers in the dark
By Lee Emmons Walking down my road on an early June afternoon several years ago, I spotted a snake attempting to cross into the underbrush. Covered in colorful splotches, it quickly slithered across the pavement and out of sight. I […]
Sundews are diminutive but deadly
By Frank Kaczmarek In 1860, a year after publication of his seminal work on the origin of species, Charles Darwin wrote to a friend, “At the moment, I care more about Drosera than the origin of all the species in […]
Swallows: graceful fliers
By Susan Shea I never tire of watching the aerial acrobatics of swallows as they swoop over fields, darting back and forth to snap up flying insects. With their smooth, flowing flight and pointed wings, they are beautiful, graceful fliers. […]
Kleptoparasitism: parasitism by theft
By Rachel Sargent Mirus Picture a robin, out in the morning and hopping around the park. It finds breakfast in the form of a worm, but out of the nearby trees swoops a bigger bird. The bigger bird acts threatening, […]
A tale of two irises
By Laurie D. Morrissey Irises, with their large, exotic-looking flowers waving atop tall stems, are among the showiest early summer blooms. Most of North America’s nearly 30 native iris species are found in the southeastern states and on the Pacific […]
Black-throated green warblers star in the spring soundtrack of the woods
By Lee Emmons This spring, as you walk outside, keep an ear open for two distinctive bird songs: “zee zee zee zee zo zee” or “zee zee zo zo zee.” If you hear them, you’ve identified a black-throated green warbler […]