By Elise Tillinghast During a late summer walk, I noticed that the common milkweed in our back field is becoming not-so-common. Once vigorous patches of the milky green plants have dwindled, engulfed in a sea of Canada goldenrod. Goldenrod is a habitat rock star, and during this walk, I counted at least 13 moth, wasp,…

Sunlight glinted off the water as we paddled our canoe along a winding channel which led through a marsh of tall grasses and wild rice. Two white, long-legged birds – great egrets – stalked the shallow water, poised to spear fish with their pointed bills. A bald eagle landed in a tree, squawking as it…

By Lee Emmons The brown thrasher (Toxostoma rufum) lives out its days in relative seclusion. Like the gray catbird, which has a similar fondness for thickets and shrubby areas, brown thrashers haunt areas of dense cover, although discerning eyes may be able to spot these birds within that habitat. Even when they’re out of sight,…

By Tim Traver This spring, we went the no-mow route on about a quarter-acre of our lawn, the last remaining groomed piece we hadn’t turned into vegetable garden or permanent meadow. What a relief! During the hottest, driest spells over the summer, the grass wasn’t growing anyway. The lawn we did mow during the drought…

The unexpected chemistry of lightning By Kenrick Vezina To say that lightning “splits” the sky is no mere poetry. A single stroke contains about one billion joules of energy, roughly 280 kilowatt-hours of electricity, and could power a modern American household for more than nine days. What’s more, it’s enough to blast apart the very…

By Laurie D. Morrissey On the New Hampshire lake where I spend much of the summer, loon calls are so common that I sometimes take them for granted. The sounds of the common loon (Gavia immer) are iconic of wilderness and have been described as haunting, plaintive, maniacal, other-worldly, even wolf-like. Recently, I’ve started listening…

By Meghan McCarthy McPhaul Among summer’s many sweet offerings are wild berries. And among these, blueberries are my favorite. Years ago, I took to carrying large, empty yogurt containers in my car – and smaller vessels in my backpack – so I would have something to fill should I pass a good berry patch. My…

By Declan McCabe Earlier this summer, I joined graduate school friend and beetle biologist, Kristian Omland, in search of the elusive cobblestone tiger beetle (Cicindela marginipennis). We loaded a canoe with insect nets, jars, and binoculars to view beetles while minimizing handling. Absent from our kit: entomologist’s killing jars. Ours was a catch-and-release mission. The…

By Meghan McCarthy McPhaul Several years ago, I was awakened nearly every day of late spring by a recurring – and very loud – bird sound. I say “sound,” rather than “song” because this particular noise was not so melodious as the cheery whistling of the robin or the musical trilling of the hermit thrush.…

By Catherine Schmitt Some things are so familiar, so common, that they are often overlooked. Such is the case with northern white cedar (Thuja occidentalis). Also known as eastern white cedar, this tree grows throughout the Northeast, but only in certain places, in part because it has evolved many ways to live and grow that…

By Declan McCabe Phantom midges are among the most common, but least seen, planktonic insect larvae in lakes and ponds. These members of the genus Chaoborus earn the “phantom” moniker from both their unique appearance and their unusual behaviors. Measuring nearly an inch long, phantom midges are virtually impossible to see. Their almost transparent bodies…

By Elizabeth Crotty When asked to name the most resilient animal, not many people likely think of tardigrades. In fact, mostpeople probably don’t even know that tardigrades exist. Affectionately called water bears or moss piglets, these microscopic invertebrates, live almost anywhere there is water – from lakes and rivers to the ocean and even in…

By Susan Shea As spring warms the water, a turtle, covered by leaves and mud at the bottom of a wetland where she hibernated for the winter, awakens. Emerging from the water, she basks on shore. The sun illuminates her bright yellow throat and her high, domed shell, or carapace, dark and shiny with light…

By Tiffany Soukup Distinctive features differentiates this rodent If you’ve never seen – or heard of – the southern bog lemming, you’re not alone. Although this small mammal scurries through our landscape year-round, it is elusive by nature. So elusive, in fact, that the southern bog lemming (Synaptomys cooperi) is listed as a species of…

By Susie Spikol Gardening at night has its rewards. For me, it offers a way to stay on top of planting and weeding while balancing work and family responsibilities. It is also cooler at night, and the quiet act of having my hands in the dirt helps me unwind. But my favorite part of night…