The Outside Story

In early March, birds that have been gone all winter begin appearing at my feeder. One of the earliest of these spring migrants is a brown-backed sparrow with a white breast coarsely streaked…

Fishers (Pekania pennanti) have a reputation as the northern forests’ ultimate misanthropes. These mesocarnivores are so territorial that within six to eight months after their birth,…

Mile-long Trout Brook cuts downhill through heavily bouldered glacial moraine in the Indian Ridge area of western New Hampshire. Like any woodland brook, it features waterfalls, cascades,…

The morning after a nighttime snowfall evokes feelings of newness and wonder. If the air is calm and the trees still retain their coat of fluffy white, I immediately bundle up and head out to…

The great gray owl (Strix nebulosa) is a northern raptor that only occasionally graces our northeastern states. Also called the phantom of the north, these owls have large facial discs with…

Like any good animal, we sense the change of seasons through a hundred subtle clues. Leaves change and shed, becoming crispy piles underfoot. Geese cross the bright sky. Other signs of winter…

While many of our region’s colorful birds fly south for the cold months, resident woodpeckers offer a reliable contrast to this season’s monochrome palette. A pileated…

For hundreds of years, people believed that, come autumn, barn swallows would dive under the surface of ponds and lakes, swim to the bottom, and bury themselves in the mud for the winter. We…

On an early winter walk with my three-year-old in a local town forest, we heard our steps crunch on the frozen ground. The dirt of the trail had been pushed up on delicate columns of ice that…

Last autumn, I was canoeing in a quiet saltwater cove on the Maine coast when I realized I had a tiny stowaway onboard. A masked shrew (Sorex cinereus, also called the cinereus or common…

On a fine gray afternoon in late October, I came across an impressive cone midden beneath a towering red spruce. While it was surely the work of an industrious squirrel – perhaps a…

Few plants evoke winter holidays in the north more dependably than the Christmas holly (Ilex aquifolium). The plant’s handsome evergreen leaves and red berries have enjoyed a sacred…

Late fall and early winter are the best times of year to spot giant silk moth cocoons in New England. Perhaps you’ve seen these creatures in the summer, fluttering by your porch light in…

Walking in our woods in early winter, I notice dense patches of clubmoss that lend a welcome splash of green to the forest floor. Some of these evergreen plants resemble miniature Christmas…

In late autumn, cold air masses come barreling down from the Canadian Arctic like an atmospheric avalanche, bringing with them a visitor from the North: the rough-legged hawk (Buteo lagopus).…

Every holiday season there is a mass migration of humans towards home and family. We use many tools to help us navigate back to the places we’re from – from simple maps to…

A few nights ago, I heard a crash on the front porch and flicked on the light to reveal a black bear’s reflective eyes. It lorded over the contents spilling out of our overturned floor…

Last week, during a walk in the woods, I turned towards soft sounds in the understory and saw a small porcupine waddling through fallen oak and maple leaves. Porcupines have terrible eyesight…

At this point in the season, most migrating songbirds and raptors have already left. But on lakes and ponds across New England, some loons are still fishing and paddling. Loon parents may set…