Alder and Willow Flycatchers: sibling species By Steven D. Faccio By mid-May each year I begin to look forward to the return of the alder flycatchers that nest in the willows along the stream near our house. Usually the last migrant to arrive on our property, this small, drab gray bird with its sneeze-like song,…

Go figure: how tree burls grow By Joe Rankin I’ve had my eye on this maple in my woods for some time. Not because it’s a beautiful timber tree. It’s only about eight inches in diameter, after all. But it has an interesting burl about 14 feet up the trunk. As a woodturner, I love…

Vernal pools: Hatch, grow and get out By Barbara Mackay Three things happened this week: bluebirds and tree swallows returned, my road was graded, and the red maple buds popped. It’s time to search for vernal pools. Vernal pools are small areas of wetland that form in the spring and dry up during the summer.…

Fish go with the flow By Tim Traver There are times when fish appear telepathic. Consider the uncanny way a school of bait fish moves as one to avoid a predator, or the way goldfish in their lighted bowl turn towards the glass when someone walks into the dark room. Researchers often describe this ability…

Tasty teas (and more) from trees: black and yellow birch By Russ Cohen Scratch and then sniff a black or yellow birch twig, and the pleasant aroma will likely put a smile on your face. What you are smelling is oil of wintergreen (methyl salicylate). This chemical compound is present in the inner bark of…

By Elise Tillinghast A deer died by the river near my home. The crows found it, as did other scavengers–a bald eagle and two big brown raptors that were hard to identify. Both had white flecking on their heads, wings and bodies, but the markings didn’t match up, bird to bird. They looked unkempt and…

By Kristen Fountain All of a sudden, sap season is here and winter’s on its way out. Chances are, though, a few more snow or ice squalls are still to come. The next time you find yourself driving behind a big plow truck, take a look at what’s coming out of the spreader. What is…

By Michael J. Caduto Walking through the woods on a cool spring morning, I saw a barred owl in an old maple tree. I circled the owl three times from a distance. Its head kept turning to follow me, tracking my movements with three complete revolutions. One of the owl’s chicks had fallen from the…

By Barbara Mackay The transition from February to March is not subtle. With hardly time to recover from a truncated month, we attend Town Meeting, cede an hour to our clocks, and navigate spontaneously erupting frost heaves. The forest is going through a seasonal transition, too, but at a more leisurely pace, and often invisibly.…

By Carolyn Lorié If you peek into a wood duck nesting box during the breeding cycle, you might find 10 to 11 eggs, which is the bird’s normal clutch size. But you might also stumble upon a box overflowing with as many as 30 eggs. How, you might ask, can one duck lay and care…

By Joe Rankin A guy down the road has been working in his woods for the last couple of years. He’s cleaning them up-—and I mean cleaning. He cuts the underbrush, takes out the dead trees, the downed logs, the dead branches. Okay, I confess. The neatnik in me is envious. Part of me would…

By Janet Pesaturo My town had the job of removing a dead beaver from a culvert pipe cage, a rather sad and odorous affair, but also an opportunity. I alerted the usual suspects–there’s nothing like a rotting carcass to bring camera trappers together–and we moved the body into the woods and set up a few…

By Steven D. Faccio The porcupine is one of the most recognizable mammals in the North Woods. And thanks to its short legs and fat body, it’s also one of the slowest. Of course, a porcupine really has little need for anything faster than first gear, since its quills provide excellent protection from most predators.…