The Outside Story

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 red as I look out my window. A…

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 your pancakes (or into your morning coffee). Many sugarmakers’…

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, 2025, a total lunar eclipse will be visible across North America. The entire eclipse will start just before midnight…

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 used since the 1800s. These periods of intense cold can impact the survival of many native…

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 carry for more than a mile. It is…

The Northeast has experienced significant ice storms throughout history, and we may be due for another one. Though we see icing in many winter storms, including recent ones, major ice storms cause widespread damage to forests and infrastructure and occur in the Northeast every 15 to 25 years. Our most recent one was in 2008.…

On a subzero morning, I clip into skis and head out across my meadow, gliding between desiccated husks of sundial lupine (Lupinus perennis) poking up above the snow. I imagine this spot eight months ago, as I watched bumblebees, mason bees, and sweat bees forage among them. Back then, in June, the world was exploding…

Driving on Vermont’s Interstate highways in winter, I often notice large hawks perched in trees on woodland edges at regular intervals along the road. With the stark landscape providing better visibility and many bird species gone for the winter, this is a great time of year to hawk-watch. The raptor I see most along the…

In the starkness of winter, squirrel dreys reveal themselves in the tree canopy. They’ve been there all along — just screened by trees’ leafy crowns for much of the year. Dreys are shaggy masses of leaves nestled against a tree trunk or cupped in a fork of branches 20 to 40 feet above the ground.…

As the winter sun set on Feb. 3, 2023, the Caribou, Maine 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 to describe homes and buildings trembling and deep…

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 the high-pitched calls of golden-crowned kinglets sounding from…

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 their feathers, or go underground. Trees, for instance,…

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 cute creatures, after we had to hire a carpenter twice to remove sections of our walls and take out smelly mouse nests, we resorted…

Halloween is long past, but you may notice devilish figures hanging out in scrubby fields and open areas this winter: horned larks. These birds are North America’s only true lark species. They reside year-round in parts of the Northeast, such as Vermont’s Champlain Valley, but disperse across the region more widely in winter, when the…

Tromping through our woods in December in search of a Christmas tree, I often notice an evergreen fern, one of the few green plants on the forest floor this time of year, other than young conifers. An easy fern to identify, it grows in fountain-like clumps and has glossy, dark green leaflets or pinnae. This…