Discover More from This Category: The Outside Story

Balsam fir is a favorite Christmas tree

December 8, 2021
By Susan Shea Every year my husband and I cut a Christmas tree on family land. We look for a young balsam fir growing in the power line right-of-way or in a forest clearing. Fir is our favorite type of Christmas tree because of its delightful, pungent fragrance. While Christmas tree farmers cultivate a variety…

How to provide shelter for birds

December 1, 2021
By Lee Emmons Come winter, after the bears have retreated to their cold weather dens, many backyard bird enthusiasts hang feeders to attract — and nourish — avian visitors. Birds need more than a supplemental food source, however. Whether they are roosting, feeding, selecting a nest location, or flying from one grove of trees to…

Woodland jumping mice are truffle specialists

November 24, 2021
Circulating spores far and wide By Susie Spikol “Shhh,” I tell my 5-year-old son, “there are animals sleeping, right under our feet.” He presses his ear against the frozen ground, hoping to hear the slow, sleepy breath of a snoozing mammal. I tell him that if he could pull back the earth like a blanket…

It takes gall(s) to make this ink

November 17, 2021
By Frank Kaczmarek What do the following items have in common: the Declaration of Independence, Da Vinci’s notebooks, Bach’s musical scores, Rembrandt’s drawings, Shakespeare’s plays, and the Magna Carta? Give up? These examples, along with countless other documents ranging from the historically important to the more mundane, were all recorded using iron gall ink, which…

Decomposing into the rainbow

November 10, 2021
By Rachel Sargent Mirus As we stroll down a forest trail, we pass trees of all types and sizes, with red and orange and brown leaves strewn below, a riot of ferns fading to yellow, and intermittent moss-covered rocks. Amongst this profusion of forest growth are stumps and fallen logs: what will become new soil…

Bats prepare for winter

November 3, 2021
By Susan Shea Years ago, I visited two Vermont caves in winter to help biologists count hibernating bats. After descending through a hole into the first cave, I immediately noticed that it was much warmer than above-ground. The cave was also more humid, and I could hear the steady drip of water. We walked quietly…

Fungi and fairy rings appear

October 27, 2021
By Frank Kaczmarek My German mother was a highly superstitious soul, especially when it came to the natural world. Case in point, one day a “fairy ring” of mushrooms appeared in our yard. My mother became agitated and told me not to disturb the ring, for it was a “hexenringe” — a place, she believed,…

American eels on the move in autumn

October 20, 2021
By Catherine Schmitt Fall’s cooling temperatures signal many changes. Among the least visible, but most incredible, is the migration of the American eel. Somewhere right now, at the bottom of a lake, pond, or river, an American eel is preparing to leave the home she has known for three, 13, or maybe even 30 years.…

Minimizing migration’s perils

October 13, 2021
By Brett Amy Thelen One morning in early autumn, I was running errands in downtown Keene, New Hampshire, when I was stopped in my tracks by a flash of yellow. Crouching down, I found a gorgeous, palm-sized bird, olive above, with a belly as gold as sunshine. It was a species I’d never seen before,…

Blister beetles use chemical defense to deter predators

October 6, 2021
By Rachel Sargent Mirus “I’ve got something for you,” my husband calls from the front door. He’s found an oddly beautiful beetle in the autumn woods. It’s around of an inch long, a dark iridescent teal, and its wings and wing-covers look comically small. Something about its body shape reminds me of a fat carpenter…

Gentians provide fall color — and bumblebee food

September 29, 2021
By Meghan McCarthy McPhaul The deep purple caught my eye, an unexpected color amid the autumn-hued palette of gold, red, and orange. I stooped to look more closely, thinking perhaps someone had dropped some manmade thing on this grassy, well-traveled path along a hardwood stand. But, no, it was a flower, its summery-colored petals closed…

Purple finches provide year-round color

September 22, 2021
By Lee Emmons In September, as summer yields to fall, most of the colorful birds that breed in our region during spring and summer head south for warmer locales. The departure of ruby-throated hummingbirds, Baltimore orioles, migratory woodpeckers, and numerous warblers doesn’t leave us entirely without striking birds, however. Perhaps the most vivid remaining species…

As summer wanes, fawns lose their spots

September 15, 2021
By Laurie D. Morrissey I have often been stopped in my tracks by the sight of a white-tailed doe standing in the lush summer grass. Depending on the sun’s slant, the animal’s coat is a rich shade of rusty brown or burnt orange. More delightful still is the sight of a fawn, reddish brown with…

Common grackles show their colors

September 8, 2021
By Meghan McCarthy McPhaul The grackle appeared early last spring, the day before I put the feeder away (so as not to tempt the bears who would soon be awakening from their winter dens). In the dim light of a cloudy day, this avian visitor seemed at first to be just another blackbird, on the…

Ant-mimic spiders master disguise

September 1, 2021
By Rachel Sargent I put the small brown ant I had mounted (but never identified) under a microscope and peered down at it. Two huge, headlight-like eyes stared back at me. That couldn’t be right; ants don’t have eyes that size and shape. I took the specimen to my professor, who initially waved me off…