By Meghan McCarthy McPhaul The big white birds paddling gracefully across a Massachusetts pond last November surprised me. I’d grown up in the town I was visiting and had never seen swans there, although my friend assured me they were […]
Tag: the outside story
The Outside Story
Porcupine salt cravings
By Susan Shea When I was growing up, my family rented a vacation home on a mountain in southern Vermont. One night we were awakened by our dogs barking. Soon we heard a persistent gnawing on the outside of the […]
The Outside Story
Spring: raccoons and other mischieveous critters
By Meghan McCarthy McPhaul Often, during my forays into the woods behind our house, I wonder who might be occupying the holes carved into tree trunks by time and nature. The barred owls I hear hoo-hoo-hoo-hooing, maybe, or the chittering […]
The Outside Story
Stone walls
By Joe Rankin When you think about the iconic landforms of the Northeast, what comes to mind? The mountains, of course. The lakes. Of course. Rivers? Probably. But there’s another. Stone walls. An estimated 100,000 miles of them. They might […]
The Outside Story
Quaking Aspen: capturing winter light
By Meghan McCarthy McPhaul Near the house where I lived during my Colorado years, there was a trail that wove through a sprawling grove of perfect quaking aspen trees. In spring, the soft green of emerging leaves was one of […]
The Outside Story
A plague of ticks: scientists search for solutions
By Susan Shea On a hike this spring, we walked through a clear-cut area with tall grass and brambles. Afterwards, our pant legs were crawling with black-legged ticks (Ixodes scapularis), also known as deer ticks, the kind that carry Lyme […]
The Outside Story
Salamander party tricks
drawn by Adelaide Tyrol By Brett Amy Thelan I once heard of a biologist with a clever party trick: regardless of where or when a given party was taking place, he claimed that he could produce a wild salamander in […]
The Outside Story
Deerflies: An intense buzzing game
Illustration by Adelaide Tyrol By Declan McCabe My students and I were conducting research in the Winooski River floodplain at Saint Michael’s College last week when the buzzing became particularly intense. A brisk walk is enough to outdistance mosquitoes, but […]
The Outside Story
A dragon devours the sun
By Michael J. Caduto More than 3,000 years ago, the Chinese believed that a dragon ate the sun during a solar eclipse, so they gathered outdoors to drive away the beast by beating pots, pans and drums. Some 500 years […]
The Outside Story
Forest tent caterpillars — Rain on a sunny day?
By Lisa Niccolai Walk through a hardwood forest this month and it may seem more like October than July. Trees that normally provide cool shade have bare crowns with just a hint of green. And is the bark on that […]