The Outside Story

One of the pleasures of the brief northern spring is moseying-about in back forties to learn what birds are arriving, what insects are emerging and what flowers are blooming. And among the…

It’s a strange, beautiful scene. I see cliffs and chasms and valleys unlike anything I’ve viewed on earth. It’s as though I’m glimpsing a rugged landscape on a planet somewhere far out…

When Andy Warhol said everyone would have 15 minutes of fame, he wasn’t talking about invertebrates. But in March of 1987 the dwarf wedge mussel garnered national attention when Plainfield,…

The Algonquin called them “moos,” a word for “twig eaters.” In winter moose munch on the buds and new growth of aspen, willow and other trees; they may even use their lower incisors to…

Without legs, wings, eyes, tentacles, or antennae, an earthworm appears almost too simple a creature to do anything. Yet, just for starters, they have well-designed tools for motoring: tiny…

“Fee-beee.” The chickadees that wintered near our house have added this familiar spring tune to their repertoire. The male birds are singing to proclaim territory and call…

With the sun finally warming the land, the buds have awakened are doing their things again. Filled with promise, they burst forth, tender leaf tips lengthening and flowers unfolding. In my…

Chances are good you have malaria in your yard. It’s found throughout New England, but you won’t come down with it. This is avian malaria, and, unfortunately for birds, it is as common as…

It is a magical time we anticipate for months. The sap begins to flow in bare trees. Even in cold, with snow covering the ground, the redwings and robins and grackles return within a day or…

Legend tells us that Benjamin Franklin wanted the turkey as our national bird. Too bad it’s not. The bald eagle is thought to possess attributes admired by our American culture —…

Shall we go to the beach today? If you can’t afford Bermuda or sunny Florida, perhaps we can visit some former beaches closer to home. Put on your boots, and leave the flip-flops because…

A few weeks ago, I was working outside during one of winter’s warm spells. The sun shone, and the temperature was in the low 40s. From the edge of the woods, a hopeful chickadee sang out,…

Forrest Hammond slid a few feet down a hillside before he grabbed the trunk of a sapling to catch himself. With his crampons now planted rather securely in the ice, he edged down the hill…

In early March, when many cold-weary souls head south for a late winter respite, others spend their days in toasty ice-fishing shacks on still-frozen ponds and on the bays of quiet rivers.…

For many in New England, the grey days of March are among the sweetest of the year. March is when sugarmakers hike to their sugar maples, drill tap-holes into trees, hang buckets and await the…

The tracks in the snow were everywhere, penetrating into the deepest parts of the thicket, where only small animals go. Inching across frozen landscape on snowshoes, and ducking eye-level…

Like ghosts from the Arctic, snowy owls have descended on New England this winter. They’re showing up in fields, along highways and in some backyards. These migrations from the arctic…

Common goldeneyes are on the prowl. In icy waters near you, these ducks are cavorting and splashing in an odd courtship ritual. In the afterglow of Valentine’s Day, they are proof that…

Trees and shrubs can’t pull up roots and traipse around populating the countryside. They spread their seeds with help from wind, water, gravity and animals. Their seeds have parachutes,…

My father, a calm and even-tempered man, seldom used expletives. But lying awake one night, I heard him enter the darkened bathroom, where he had left a cup filled with medicinal syrup to…