The Outside Story

On warm days through early fall, you can find two large species of “digger” wasps flitting about late-blooming flowers. Like many wasps, these species elicit strong, often negative…

The Northeast is famous for its fall foliage, as the lush, green leaves of summer transform into bright hues, turning hillsides and valleys into quilts of scarlet, ochre, and gold. Among the…

As the height-of-summer floral abundance fades, goldenrods and asters fill the landscape with hits of yellow, purple, pink, and white. Beyond the beauty they provide, these late bloomers are a…

I often spot black willow trees as I’m kayaking along a riverbank or lakeshore. While perhaps less picturesque than its (non-native) cousin the weeping willow, black willow is native to…

Before the trees put on their colorful autumnal cloaks, the newly rewilded fields at my home turn to gold and purple. New England American-aster (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae) begins blooming…

Birds exist in a fluid and unpredictable world. Survival depends on remaining constantly alert, adapting and responding to encounters with predators and environmental conditions that change…

Water striders are a common sight on ponds, vernal pools, and puddles. During clear summer days, these insects seem to walk on water, a feat they accomplish through a combination of long legs…

Ferns have grown on Earth for longer than trees and flowers, and existed well before Homo sapiens. In our region, the oldest lineage, emerging 200 million years ago, is the royal fern family…

If you wanted to see the Sunapee trout, you might be inclined to search in its namesake, New Hampshire’s Lake Sunapee. But this elusive fish has long been extirpated from the Granite…

Walking on a woods road beside a stream in early July, I spotted several tight clusters of butterflies perched on scat piles and on wet sand near the brook. When one of the butterflies spread…

Behind my garden of native plants, one scrappy perennial holds its own among the tangle of goldenrod stalks and blackberry brambles. Its swaying flowerheads buzz with a throng of insects:…

A long time ago, not so far away, freshwater plants partnered with fungi and moved onto land from lake and river shores. Since that time, land plants have evolved many sophisticated strategies…

If you’re looking for warblers on a walk in the summer woods, your first instinct might be to look toward the canopy. But two closely related warbler species forgo those elevated…

Road crews across the United States use more than 24 million tons of road salt (sodium chloride) to melt ice and snow each year – triple the volume used in 1975. Road salt is…

Black birds with a greenish sheen and brown heads sometimes visit my yard during spring migration. These are male brown-headed cowbirds, and they often arrive in mixed flocks of red-winged…

Last July, I crossed paths with an insect that looked like the living embodiment of my favorite drawing game. Using folded paper, players add to a communal image without seeing previous…

July 2023 was the hottest month ever recorded worldwide, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Rising temperatures associated with climate change have dramatically…

In Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, Alice stumbles upon a large mushroom. She peeps over the edge and encounters a caterpillar “smoking a long hookah, and taking…

When I worked at a barn one summer during college, I marveled at the swallows that nested in the structure’s eaves and corners. I watched the iridescent birds swoop, flutter, and dart…

A few ledges along the Connecticut River are home to a rare plant commonly known as Jesup’s milk-vetch (Astragalus robbinsii var. jesupii). In fact, this species, which has been listed…