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 […]
Tag: 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: 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: 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: 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 […]
The Outside Story: The truth behind maple syrup color and flavor
By Dave Mance III Some years sugaring season goes by the book, which is to stay things start cold, and over the course of four to six weeks spring arrives gradually and consistently. In such a scenario, the syrup usually […]
The Outside Story: How loons winter
By Tiffany Soukup When I was a child, I looked forward to spending summers with my grandmother at our family cottage on a Canadian lake. Every year, as soon as I was out of the car, we would run to […]
Springtime skunks: amorous, odoriferous and in the road
By Todd McLeish Driving home from work the other day, I saw my first road-killed skunk of the year. And if this year is anything like the last few, it won’t be the last one I see this season. While […]
The Outside Story: How are caves created?
By Susan Shea To enter the cave, we donned hard hats and descended a vertical drop with the aid of a rope. We crawled on our knees and bellies through a wet, narrow passageway, emerging into a large underground chamber […]
The Outside Story: Weasel “Evel Knievels”
By Elise Tillinghast My friend Gordon Russell sent me a letter recently describing a wildlife encounter. He had been following deer tracks along a stone wall when a movement caught his attention. “Almost before its image could travel to my […]