By Susan Shea One summer, I took a nature drawing class, and we hiked up Stowe Pinnacle to sketch in the cool, mountain forest. I chose to draw a big yellow birch that had established itself on the steep slope. For a couple of hours, I stared at the base of the tree, trying to…

By Lee Emmons On certain afternoons, if I time it just right, I may spot a brown creeper (Certhia americana) on the trunk of a tree in my front yard. Moving stealthily, almost imperceptibly up the tree, the brown creeper hunts for food amongst the bark. I watch this avian mission with a sense of…

By Rachel Sargent Mirus On sunny, warm days, houseflies hatch and buzz around homes and offices. These flies complete aerobatic stunts that easily evade human efforts at swatting or shooing. That aerial agility, so frustrating to the would-be swatters, is thanks to a pair of highly specialized sense organs called halteres. Halteres are modified wings…

By Declan McCabe One spring, following heavy rain, I visited the Saint Michael’s College Natural Area hoping to capture exciting photographs of the rushing Winooski River. Rather than raging floodwaters, however, I found the river’s floodplain was efficiently – and slowly – accommodating the onslaught of rainwater. News reports of floods typically show catastrophic events,…

By Susan Shea On a warm, rainy April night a few years ago, I drove up our muddy, rutted dirt road through the mist, steering around the wood frogs hopping across the road. As I approached the vernal pool, there were more frogs in the road, so I parked to avoid hitting them and walked…

At this very moment, nestled into the sediment at the bottom of your nearest lake or pond, are Daphnia eggs – as many as 100,000 per square meter, according to one Michigan study. A genus of microscopic crustaceans, Daphnia are sometimes known as “water fleas,” and their eggs can remain viable for anywhere from several…

By Declan McCabe When my sisters visit from Ireland, I try to play tour guide, but I’m occasionally at a loss for what to do next. During a visit in the late 1990s, my sister Grace said she would love to see a beaver. At that time, I lived close to a beaver pond and…

By Lee Emmons On Valentine’s Day, as I sat down to write, I noticed a burst of blue outside my upstairs window. Looking out with my binoculars, I counted six eastern bluebirds. Clustered on and below my suet feeders, they were a wonderfully pleasant surprise on a chilly February morning. As I watched, the bluebirds…

By Susan Shea The bare branches of the trees outside my window seem lifeless in late winter. However, each twig holds many buds — small, wrapped packages of potential awaiting the spring. These buds formed last summer and are designed to withstand snow, ice, and subzero temperatures. By withdrawing water from them before winter, deciduous…

By Declan McCabe On a clear midwinter day several years ago, my student Sarah Wakefield and I pulled on snowshoes, donned backpacks, and headed up through Smuggler’s Notch. Our destination was Big Spring, which rises from Mt. Mansfield’s bedrock before flowing east for 100 yards and entering a culvert under Vermont Route 108. When it…

By Susie Spikol There comes a time in every mammal mother’s life when her young leave. For some, this comes in a matter of weeks, for others it might be years. As I follow bobcat tracks through snow on a mid-winter day, dispersal is on my mind. My 18-year-old son is preparing to fledge, and…

By Rachael Mirrus In a February forest, evergreens provide welcome color. But look more closely on the bark of trees, both conifers and hardwoods, and you’ll find other bright hues, from sunny yellows to blue-greens. These are lichens, common but often overlooked members of the winter woods. Lichens have varied and intricate growth patterns, but…

By Tiffany Soukup Last summer I regularly passed a stand of towering white pine trees at Camp Plymouth State Park in Ludlow, where I live and work. Most days I saw at least one hairy woodpecker, a few blue jays, chickadees, a pair of broad-winged hawks, and a multitude of red squirrels around the trees.…

By Susan Shea A woodpecker frequently visits our feeder, alighting on the wooden supporting post and hopping up the post to the suet. Its medium size and striking markings – black wings spotted with white, a large white patch on the back, and a red spot on the back of the head – identify the…

By Declan McCabe I consider the lack of biting insects and other invertebrates to be a wondrous gift of the winter season. I can wander unmolested through wood and field absent the attentions of mosquitoes, deer flies, and ticks. And aside from a short list of “usual suspects,” insects are a rarity to be encountered…