The Outside Story

Ever wonder why those Angry Birds on your smartphone app are so mad at those pigs? It’s probably because the pigs are feral. According to estimates by the U.S. Department of Agriculture…

Winter can be a lean time for birders. The vast majority of our avian diversity has moved south, and watching the few species that visit our birdfeeders from the comfort of a cozy living room…

Spreading salt to make treacherous ice disappear must have seemed brilliant in the early days of its use. Naturally occurring, abundant, and cheap, road salt allows people to get to work on…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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.…

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…

The New England cottontail rabbit once hopped through much of New England, thriving in the old fields, shrubby thickets, and young forests that defined our region. But the landscape has…

I was eating breakfast when I noticed a black duck quietly feeding on our small pond. It would occasionally “tip-up” — head underwater, tail skyward — in typical puddle duck fashion.…

The Connecticut River – the boundary between Vermont and New Hampshire – is often referred to as a great river, a distinction based on its diverse four state watershed and its key…

Last weekend, my four-year-old niece asked me why leaves turn red. Dang it; why couldn’t she have asked me an easier one? Like, why do leaves turn green? Or even yellow? Nobody knows…

There has been much publicity in the last few years about the alarming losses of honeybees. In 2007, an estimated 30 percent of hives were lost nationwide, largely through a mysterious…

Grab a handful of soil. Go ahead, step outside and scoop up a small amount in your hand. It’s hard to imagine all that’s going on in there. You’re holding trillions of creatures, though…

There were times, during Tropical Storm Irene, when the rivers in Vermont and New Hampshire seemed to be made out of something other than water. Whatever it was was viscous and liquid, sure,…

A number of years ago, when I was working in a New Hampshire mountain hut, a man walked in from the rain and saw a piece of paper thumb-tacked to the wall with the day’s weather forecast on…