Discover More from This Category: The Outside Story

The Outside Story: Life at 39 degrees

March 4, 2020
By Declan McCabe On a picture-perfect winter morning last year, 20 Saint Michael’s College students and I visited Vermont Fish and Wildlife scientists for ice fishing at Knight’s Point on Lake Champlain. We drilled holes, baited hooks, learned about ice safety, identified fish – and even caught a few. The ice we tentatively walked on…

The Outside Story: Frozen frogs underfoot

February 26, 2020
By Brett Amy Thelen Every once in a while, as I’m tramping through the winter woods on my snowshoes, it occurs to me that I am walking on top of frogs. In winter, our thoughts naturally turn to the species who remain within our sight – the chickadees at our feeders or the foxes who…

The Outside Story: Winter Weasels – White on white

February 19, 2020
By Susan Shea On a walk one winter afternoon, I spotted two white objects darting across a snow-covered field. White on white, they were difficult to identify at first. It was a short-tailed weasel chasing a snowshoe hare! Apart from the snowshoe hare, short- and long-tailed weasels are the only animals in the Northeast whose…

Snow spiders: Rule-breakers

February 12, 2020
The Outside Story By Susie Spikol I have always admired nature’s mutineers: animals and plants that thwart the recognized system and do their own thing. As a child I was the sole member of my own duck-billed platypus club, endeared to this creature with the bird-like bill, beaver-style tail, and shocking ability to lay eggs.…

Pileated woodpeckers: Winter excavators

February 5, 2020
by Meghan McCarthy McPaul Whenever I spy a pileated woodpecker traversing the sky, I pause to watch its weird undulating flight. The jerky rise-and-drop movement of this large woodpecker is endearingly gawky – like a mini pterodactyl visiting from the Cretaceous period. This time of year, the bird’s bold crimson crest flashes in stark contrast…

The Outside Story: Springtails: Tiggers of the invertebrate world

January 29, 2020
By Declan MeCabe As we leaned over the Colchester Bog boardwalk, a student asked, “What’s that black stuff on the water?” I suggested gently poking it with a twig. This elicited the expected response: as though ejected from James Bond’s Aston Martin, tiny black flecks scattered, landing inches away and on my student’s hand. Springtails,…

The Outside Story: Winter fruit provides honey for wildlife

January 22, 2020
By Susan Shea Late one January afternoon, my husband and I stood on the shore of a frozen pond below the summit of Camel’s Hump, admiring the view. Suddenly we heard familiar calls, and a flock of robins flew over. Robins? In winter? In the mountains? I was perplexed. Later, I talked with a birder…

The Outside Story: The bobcat’s snow day

January 15, 2020
Snow day! The announcement draws squeals of joy from students throughout the school district and groans from parents who must scramble to provide care for their kids and face a treacherous commute. But fourth-graders with overdue homework and harried parents aren’t the only ones whose fortunes hang in the balance when new snow blankets the…

Chipmunk Game Theory 101

January 8, 2020
Two chipmunks vie for seeds on our front lawn. One lives directly underneath the bird feeder. Another hails from the far side of the house, address unknown. The chipmunks appear identical to me: same size, same stripes. Same interests, namely seed hoarding, aggressive chittering, jumping into the bushes and back out again, and brazen stiff-tailed…

A rightful place for the American beech

December 31, 2019
By Olivia Box I’ve always found slender, sharp, yellow-ochre beech leaves alluring, and it’s endearing how they cling onto saplings late into the fall. However, Fagus grandifolia, the American beech, tends to get a lot of flak from foresters. The trees are plagued with beech bark disease, which ruins any timber value, and they can…

The Outside Story: Nuts for corns

December 18, 2019
by Susie Spikol Tucked behind a stonewall on the edge of a hardwood forest, my 6-year-old students and I spy on an Eastern gray squirrel as it climbs out of a tree cavity and scurries down to the ground. There is a dusting of snow. My students, bundled in vibrant snowsuits, are the only flash…

The Outside Story: The amazing chickadee

December 11, 2019
by Susan Shea Black-capped chickadees are one of the most frequent visitors to our bird feeders in winter, but do we really know them? This common bird exhibits some remarkable behaviors and winter survival strategies. Undoubtedly you’ve heard the familiar “chicka-dee-dee-dee” call in the winter woods. Soon after spotting the caller, with its black cap…

The Outside Story: Evergreen ferns can be enjoyed year-round

December 4, 2019
By Sandra Mitchell Walking through the woods on a crisp December day, I spotted a flash of green amongst the rocks, snaking up through the snow. Greenery in a forest full of gray and white is a treat, and so I stooped to study the fern frond that was firmly attached to a rock. In…

The Outside Story: All about antlers

November 27, 2019
By Dave Mance III The blast of a gunshot: a deep bass roar she feels in her chest, followed by a treble ringing in her ears. The buck drops. The hunter remains in her crouch, watching the animal’s last breaths through her scope. When he is still she rises, trembling from the cold and the…

British soldier lichens provide color pop

November 20, 2019
British soldier lichens are among the first wild things I remember being able to identify as a child. I loved spotting this lichen during forays into the woods – on a giant boulder or atop a decaying stump – its tiny, bright red caps seemed whimsical and somehow happy. I still love to find British…