Knots and Bolts

Red-bellied woodpeckers have a varied diet consisting of nuts, fruits, frogs, minnows, nestling birds, songbird eggs, invertebrates, sap, and nectar. At this time of year, acorns are a…

When Rich and Ann Chalmers decided to move from California back to Vermont in 1995, they had no intention of managing a large tract of forest – or, really, any idea of what stewarding…

The invitation was irresistible. I was chatting with Dave Small, president of the Athol Bird & Nature Club, who’d just given a winter lecture on moths. The images he’d shared…

Ernie Brooks got his men out and rolling well before dawn at his Mud Lake lumber camp deep in the Adirondacks. A longtime lumberman from Speculator in Hamilton County, Brooks logged near…

In 1984, I bought a two-acre house lot that had been part of a hayfield on a historical farm in Tiverton, Rhode Island. It was located on the narrow coastal plain of Rhode Island’s East…

Geoff McKonly’s journey as a furniture maker is much like his creations: unconventional. A former boatbuilder, McKonly not only taught himself the fine art of furniture making, but also…

It is common knowledge that beavers are herbivorous, but the extent of their herbivory is not always appreciated. A beaver’s massive front incisors, along with the muscles attached to…

As a child growing up in Miami, Divya Anantharaman didn’t have much exposure to wild animals. Then, her family visited an African mammal diorama at a local natural history museum, and…

Photographer Meg Madden grew up in Vermont and learned how to identify trees and the local fauna from her neighbor, a retired agronomy professor who took her on nature walks. When the pandemic…

With its striking black-and-white coloration and haunting calls that echo across the water, the common loon is an iconic species of the Northeast. Once widespread and truly…

From the time he was a small child, Craig Troeger knew he wanted to tend his own land. He bought his first property – 83 acres in Van Buren, Maine – in 1974, at the age of 19.…

After nearly a half century of making finely crafted studio furniture, Hank Gilpin has learned one simple truth: There is no bad wood. The master craftsman has produced more than 4,000 pieces…

While there are many benefits to buying fresh produce at grocery stores and farmers’ markets, your own yard can also be a source of seasonal and nutritious flowers, fruits, nuts, tubers,…

While conducting wild edibles inventories on properties around western Massachusetts, environmental educator Arianna Alexsandra Collins appreciates the delight of homeowners in discovering…

A welcome sign of spring in northern New England and New York is the return of wood ducks to wooded swamps and wetlands. There are seven species of ducks in North America that regularly nest…

When the Edwards family closed its four-generation dairy farm in 2001, Kurt and Kristie Edwards turned their attention to the mostly forested property, a few miles away, which has been in…

“Hey Fred,” said Geoff Dennis over the phone. “I have a tame hermit thrush in my woods that is practically eating out of my hand. Would you like to come over and photograph it?” Oh…

When I was young, I dreamed of apprenticing to a wise elder who could train me in the ways of the wild. Alas, as a child growing up in a Connecticut suburb, I never found such a teacher. But,…

Both cedar and Bohemian waxwings derive their common names from the red, waxy tips of some of their secondary feathers.The color of this wax is due to the presence of the pigment astaxanthin.…

Although the largest vertebrate that has ever lived is the female blue whale, in most species of birds and mammals, males are larger than their mates. In birds of prey (hawks, falcons, eagles,…