By Elise Tillinghast My friend Gordon Russell sent me a letter recently describing a wildlife encounter. He had been following deer tracks along a stone wall when a movement caught his attention. “Almost before its image could travel to my […]
Category: The Outside Story
The Outside Story
The Outside Story: The buzz on honey flavors
By Joe Rankin It’s still the middle of winter, but the sun is climbing higher each day and I know that it won’t be long until my honeybees are out seeking nectar and pollen. From early-blooming red maple trees. Then […]
The Outside Story
In cold, wet woods, needle ice sprouts
By Rachel Sargent The bare ground of the trail wound through dead leaves and patchy snow. At a short overhang in the trail, I noticed spiky threads of ice growing up from the soil in crunchy clusters. A careless boot […]
The Outside Story
To boost plant growth, growers enrich soils with biochar
By Meghan McCarthy McPhaul At this time of year, many a gardener’s daydreams turn to the springtime promise of sprouting plants. Seed catalogs start arriving in the mail months before the soil will be thawed and drained enough for planting, […]
The Outside Story
Lichen—not technically a plant
By Joe Rankin On cold winter days, while feeding sticks of firewood into my woodstove, I sometimes pause, my eye caught by lichens. Splotchy circles, lacy tendrils. Soft gray, muted gray-green, black. They mottle the bark. When I look out […]
The Outside Story
Goshawk: apex accipiter
By Thomas Ames, Jr. “The Boke of St. Albans,” a 15th century sportsman’s handbook, decreed that only a nobleman could hunt with a falcon, but a mere yeoman might settle for a goshawk. “In the talons there was death,” wrote […]
The Outside Story
The Outside Story: Have you seen a mountain lion?
By Madeline Bodin In the photo, the mountain lion lies on its side on the shoulder of a Connecticut parkway. Taillights shine in the distance. A Connecticut state trooper snapped the photo after a motorist had struck and killed the […]
Column, The Outside Story
Ice magic
illustration for this column was drawn by Adelaide Tyrol By Laurie Morrissey Last night, the floodlights were on at my favorite skating lake. Several children wearing plastic skates and shiny helmets were gliding on the ice, shepherded by young parents. […]
The Outside Story
The Outside Story: A warm winter’s winners and losers
By Tim Traver During a mild winter in northern New England, there are those of us who rejoice over our lower heating bills and those who scan the forecast, hoping for cold and snow. In a classic El Niño […]
The Outside Story
The Outside Story: Crows
Crow communication is cawfully complicated By Joe Rankin “Caw! Caw!” Every spring we hear it. And my wife says, “that’s My Crow.” It’s apparently the bird’s name. She capitalizes it in her tone. I think she hasn’t bestowed a more […]