Discover More from This Category: The Outside Story

Meet New England’s only lizard, the five-lined skink

September 30, 2020
New England is home to dozens of species of mammals, hundreds of varieties of birds, and tens of thousands of different insects, but only one lizard: the five-lined skink. Though I am fond of reptiles and often seek them out, I have never seen a skink. Unless you’re lucky, determined, or a rock climber –…

Blue jays — likeable villains

September 23, 2020
Plenty of backyard birdwatchers consider blue jays (Cyanocitta cristata) the villains of the avian world. Mark Twain best summarized anti-blue jay sentiment when he compared the bird’s principles to that of an ex-congressman. In Native American lore, blue jays are portrayed as thieves and tricksters. Understandably, this songbird generates antipathy for its nest marauding, birdfeeder…

Are brighter monarchs better flyers?

September 16, 2020
By Rachel Mirus The September before my daughter was born, my husband and I went for our last pre-baby hike around Camel’s Hump. We stopped for a snack on the ridgeline, and as we sat munching granola bars we were surprised to see a monarch butterfly flap past, battling the turbulence at this higher elevation.…

Brainwashed by worms

September 9, 2020
By Declan McCabe Some of my favorite children’s books describe life cycles as heroic tales of persistence and redemption. From “The Ugly Duckling” to “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” to “A Seed is Sleeping,” these stories have brought the miracles of growth and maturation to life for generations of readers. I can’t say, however, that I…

Garter snakes can be surprise guests

September 2, 2020
By Susan Shea One summer day I lifted the black plastic top of our composter and jumped back, startled – a large snake was curled up on top of the compost. The yellow stripe down the center of its dark back and two yellow stripes along its sides identified it as a garter snake, our…

Amphibians Aglow

August 26, 2020
By Brett Amy Thelen The living light of bioluminescent organisms like fireflies, anglerfish, and marine plankton is legendary. The dazzling light shows put on by synchronous fireflies in Great Smoky Mountains National Park are so popular that park managers have had to institute a lottery system for viewing them. An entire recreation industry has grown…

The kingfisher and the mussel

August 19, 2020
Last July, Rich Kelley posted a most unusual photograph to the Vermont Birding Facebook group with the caption, “Someone bit off more than he could chew.” The photo, taken in the Missisquoi National Wildlife Refuge, showed a belted kingfisher weighted down by a mussel clamped firmly onto its beak. They were locked in an embrace…

Butterflies sip sweet nectar

August 12, 2020
By Susan Shea Recently I saw a beautiful orange butterfly speckled with black – a great spangled fritillary –feeding on orange hawkweed in a meadow. I observed it through binoculars, so as not to scare it off, then slowly crept closer. I watched as the butterfly unfurled its proboscis, a tube that functions like a…

Red-bellied woodpeckers move north

August 5, 2020
By Lee Emmons I first became acquainted with my neighborhood red-bellied woodpecker (​Melanerpes carolinus) when it visited my bird feeders last winter. Sporting a black-and-white-striped back with a red nape, this medium-sized woodpecker certainly made a visual impression. Its call was also memorable, a loud ​kwirr ​that sounded nothing like the other birds in my…

Exploring a swamp

July 29, 2020
By Susan Shea There was a sucking sound as my rubber boot sank into the deep black muck. Naturalist Jon Binhammer and I were standing in the middle of a hardwood swamp in central Vermont. Above us, dainty red flowers clung to the still-bare branches of red maple trees and fat black buds encircled the…

Sweat bees: diminutive and diverse

July 22, 2020
The Outside Story By Rachel Mirus As you swat away blackflies this summer, look closely; it may be that not all those flies are flies. Some of them might be tiny sweat bees, members of the Halictidae family, which gets its common name because some species will lick sweat from human skin. Sweat bees are…

Muskrats: swimming through summer

July 15, 2020
By Meghan McCarthy McPhaul We were touring the neighborhood backroads one summer evening when the kids noticed a sleek movement through a small pond. At first, we thought it was a beaver, but its smaller size and – once we got a closer look – slender tail revealed this swimmer as a muskrat. It went…

Fascinating fishing spiders

July 8, 2020
By Declan McCabe Large fishing spiders walking on water can be fascinating – or terrifyingly unnerving. The latter reaction is common among Saint Michael’s College students as we sample Vermont’s streams and ponds. On one occasion, a normally macho student screamed, dropped his net, and leaped from the stream to avoid a particularly large specimen.…

Broad-winged hawks: secret nesters

July 1, 2020
By Susie Spikol Each fall, thousands of broad-winged hawks soar across the New England sky in flocks known as kettles, on their way to wintering grounds in South and Central America. The sky swirls with hawks bubbling up on thermals of hot air and then streaming southward. It is enough to take your breath away…

Of drumlins and erratics

June 24, 2020
By Michael J. Caduto There’s a story about an early tourist from New York City who stopped his horse and buggy to watch a farmer harvesting a spring crop of rocks from his land. The farmer was loading rocks onto a sledge drawn by oxen. The stranger called him over and asked, “Where did all…