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.…

Most winters, the dark-eyed junco is one of the most common birds at my feeder. While I rarely see juncos in summer, except when hiking in the mountains, small flocks of juncos typically appear soon…

Years ago, I spent considerable time investigating factors that affected the distribution and abundance of snowshoe hares. That investigation was part of a larger project examining what limited…

The mystique of the Catamount Trail (CT) lured me to Vermont in the 1980s. I was living in Boston and had heard of the new 300-mile trail that traveled the length of the Green Mountains, from the…

We found these marks on a birch tree, about a foot above the snow, during a ski through the woods this week. Who’s been noshing on this tree?

In 1976, when Francie Von Mertens was on the hunt for a place “with room to roam for wildlife and children,” she landed in Peterborough, New Hampshire. In the years since, Francie –…

As I stroll through the cemetery near my home on a snowy day, splashes of golden orange, bright as daylilies in July, pop from the gray stones. These patches are elegant sunburst lichens, which…

This Week in the Woods, we decided to devote this space to resolving, once and for all, a question that has concerned generations of young researchers: Yes, deer can fly. This photo shows a…

On a late winter afternoon in 1994, I accompanied Professor Jan Sykora, my thesis advisor, on a field trip to the Carnegie Museum’s Powdermill Nature Reserve in Pennsylvania’s Laurel…

It’s an unseasonably warm February morning in the northern Adirondacks. Just two weeks prior, temperatures had been in minus territory. Today, however, is a balmy 40 degrees, and the student…

Wilson Bentley (1865-1931) lived his entire life in Jericho, Vermont, where he developed a passion for snowflakes at an early age. He started by collecting snowflakes and trying to create detailed…

This Week in the Woods, our shed camera trap project revealed a beautiful weasel, probably a long-tailed weasel, in the act of carrying off its mouse prey. Weasels are relatively new animals. They…

We recently took this photo of a fruit laden tree in silhouette. What is it?

With parents who are involved in land stewardship and foster a keen appreciation for working and playing outside, it’s no wonder that Siler Russ is growing up with a strong understanding of the…

Your November photos depicted the subdued colors and quiet scenes of the Northeast’s “stick season,” as well as occasional bright highlights such as lemon drop fungi and winterberry.…

Every year my husband and I cut a Christmas tree on family land. We look for a young balsam fir growing in the power line right-of-way or in a forest clearing. Fir is our favorite type of Christmas…

This Week in the Woods, we’ve been spying on flying squirrels (they appear to be southern flying squirrels) in a barn. These beautiful little animals, not much bigger than chipmunks, are fairly…

This issue features The Catamount Trail: Connecting Communities Through Snow, Stream Crossings Reimagined, White Hares in a Brown Forest, and much more! Order a copy of this issue or visit…

For Safer Communities and Benefits to Fish and Wildlife Throughout the Northeast, local, state, federal, and tribal agencies partner with communities and landowners to upgrade stream crossings to…