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Outside Story Archive
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Going Sweetly Into Winter
As the landscape settles into winter, one of the things we notice (and likely enjoy) is the virtual absence of insects. As small, cold-blooded creatures, insects cannot stay active at low temperatures; they quickly chill, their metabolism stops, and they freeze to death.
To escape an icy demise, insects in northern latitudes employ many tactics for winter survival, such… (more)
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The Secret Life of the Mourning Dove
There was a time when I considered the mourning dove to be too commonplace and familiar to be worthy of much attention. All of this changed one winter when I began to notice that some birds at my birdfeeder had frostbitten toes and missing toenails. I looked into the matter and learned that mourning doves were originally a southern bird,… (more)
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A Holiday Nature Lesson
There are few symbols of the holiday season more universally recognized than the Christmas tree. Selecting it, chopping it down, trimming it, and placing on the star are traditions anticipated year after year by those celebrating the season. There are songs to sing around the Christmas tree and parties to celebrate its decoration. There are December nights spent around it… (more)
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The Butcher Bird
While most common songbirds migrate south for the winter, our part of the world is “south” for several birds of the far north. Snow buntings, common redpolls, and rough-legged hawks, among others, regularly move into our region in the winter months.
These northern visitors make cold-weather birding interesting, but one bird – the northern shrike – stands out because of… (more)
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Tree Cavities: Whose Hole is That?
Many years ago I developed the habit of locating a stout walking stick whenever bushwhacking through the woods.The stick’s primary purpose isn’t for balance or support, it’s for whacking the occasional tree.When I encounter a tree with a cavity larger than about three inches in diameter, I often check to see that there are no dead branches above my head… (more)
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The Future is Made of Rare Earth
Tom Mortimer of Amherst, N.H., an avid amateur mineral collector, has the most complete collection of New Hampshire minerals anywhere in the state. Most of the time his tabletop-sized display case of nearly 300 minerals is stored in his home office, but several times a year he packs it up and displays it at mineral shows.
On one shelf sits… (more)
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Are Vermont’s Deer Losing Their Antlers?
With deer season in full swing, here’s something to ponder: will Vermont’s antler-restriction law (the ban on shooting spikehorns), which was designed to promote larger bucks with bigger antlers, someday lead to smaller bucks with smaller antlers? Some scientific evidence suggests that this might be the case.
Prior to 2005, when the restriction went into effect, just over half of… (more)
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Understanding Deer Sex Ratios
Rifle season opens this week in Vermont and New Hampshire, and doe:buck ratios will be a hot topic of conversation around the cribbage board at deer camp. For those who aren’t up on their deer-herd lingo, the ratio of does to bucks in the woods is one indicator of how well the deer herd is being managed. The more balanced… (more)
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Canis soupus: The Eastern Coy-Wolf
As any biologist will tell you, different species of animal can’t breed with one another. Well, they can, but nature has a way of jumping in and nipping such cross pollination in the bud. For example, a horse can mate with a donkey, but the resulting honkey (ok, mule) should be sterile. Cattalo (cow/buffalo crosses) produce sterile males. Whitetailed deer/blacktailed… (more)
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The Early Forecast Calls For Snow
If you’re a fan of a good, old-fashioned New England winter, with snow piling up under the eaves, you’ll be pleased to know that we’re going to have a La Niña this year. If you can’t tell a La Niña from an El Niño, and also can’t recall old-fashioned New Englanders speaking Spanish when talking about the weather, read on.
… (more)