By Laurie Morrissey Birdsong has always fascinated humans. Besides waking some of us up a wee bit too early in the morning, it has inspired musical compositions and immortal poetry. It has produced lush descriptions, like those of the early […]
Tag: the outside story
Column, The Outside Story
Good news for wild bees?
By Joe Rankin The honey bee is an introduced species in North America. It’s only been here about 400 years, brought by English colonists who found none after stumbling ashore and then promptly put in an order with their backers […]
The Outside Story
The Outside Story; How do cowbirds learn to be cowbirds?
By Carolyn Lorié Unlike the majority of birds, brown-headed cowbirds (Molothrus ater) do not start life surrounded by their own kind. The females do not build nests, but instead add their eggs to the clutches of other birds—usually one per […]
The Outside Story
The Outside Story: Karner blues make a comeback
By Meghan McCarthy McPhaul The Karner blue, New Hampshire’s state butterfly, is a wisp of a thing, a tiny fluttering of silvery-blue wings. Unless you happen to be wandering through a pine barren or black-oak savannah, however, you’re unlikely […]
The Outside Story
The Outside Story: Jack-in-the-pulpits
Jack-in-the-pulpit–or is that Jill? By Meghan McCarthy McPhaul Jack-in-the-pulpits (Arisaema triphyllum) are not the most colorful spring flowers, but what they lack in beauty they make up for in interesting characteristics. These easily-identified plants are full of surprises, from their […]
The Outside Story
The Outside Story: Lady’s-slipper season
By Susan Shea I’ll never forget my first encounter with lady’s-slippers. While hiking the Long Trail in southern Vermont one June, we camped near a remote pond. Our tent site beneath an evergreen canopy was surrounded by the flowers. Each […]
The Outside Story
The Outside Story: Angry birds
By Carolyn Lorié One morning in mid-March, I opened the door to discover a dark-eyed junco frenetically battling another bird. Or at least it thought it was another bird. His nemesis was, in fact, his own reflection in the stainless-steel […]
The Outside Story
The Outside Story: A sure sign of spring: robins on the nest
By Meghan McCarthy McPhaul We noticed the first robin in our yard this year in early March. Normally these famous spring harbingers, who move in comically stilted hops across our front lawn, don’t show up until at least April Fool’s […]
The Outside Story
The Outside Story: There’s a little black spot on the sun in May
By Laurie Morrissey It’s just a tiny black dot moving very, very slowly. But if you’re interested in astronomy, this is an exciting dot. It is Mercury, the smallest planet in our solar system, passing between the earth and the […]
The Outside Story
The Outside Story: Molting season
By Joe Rankin “Boy, he’s really red! I don’t think I’ve ever seen them that red before,” my wife said admiringly of a male purple finch crunching sunflower seeds at the feeder. He was a nice burgundy. The male goldfinches […]