As Peter Grima notes in his profile of heartleaf birch in Northern Woodlands Autumn 2024 edition, one of the easiest ways to distinguish this species from paper birch and gray birch is by examining…

We found these blobs with goo-filled craters on the forest floor in an area comprising mainly hemlocks and pines on an island in the Connecticut River. What are they?

There was no shortage of beauty in the July photo submissions! Our contributors captured a variety of summer sights, ranging from delicate orchids to colorful insects and young mammals, to evidence of…

Pam Hunt grew up in an outdoorsy family in upstate New York. Her first camping outing came at the tender age of six months old, and she continues to enjoy camping and kayaking, always on the lookout…

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 with the…

This week in the woods, common nighthawks are migrating down the Connecticut River corridor, and if you look up at twilight, you may catch a glimpse of them performing acrobatic dives and swoops.…

5 per package WindowAlert decals help prevent wild birds from accidentally striking windows. Each decal has a special coating that reflects ultraviolet sunlight. This ultraviolet light is invisible to…

This Week in the Woods, Associate Editor Meghan McCarthy McPhaul discovered this snake skin in a woodpile. Snakes typically shed their skins several times a year, depending on such factors as species,…

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 that…

Show your support for Northern Woodlands with this charming sticker, designed by artist Nick Bezio. Featuring the iconic yellow-spotted salamander (Ambystoma maculatum), this sticker celebrates one of…

Clare Walker Leslie is a naturalist, artist, and teacher. She has taught in twenty-nine states and written fifteen books. Her most recent book, How to Look at a Bird: Open Your Eyes to the Joy of…

If you gaze long into a forest ... the forest also gazes into you. With apologies to Nietzsche, we found these eye-like objects staring back up at us from a rich northern hardwood forest floor in…

Our native plant pollinator garden has been fully planted and mulched. Just a few tasks remain for the season, including addressing some storm water drainage issues. Many hands have come together to…

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…

This week in the woods, we observed an American robin chick making its first wobbly flight from the nest, which started off well but ended with a crash landing on the lawn. (The young bird was fine,…

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 State, and…

This Week in the Woods, as we move into late summer, there’s a lot less singing in the woods but we’re still hearing hermit thrushes, red-eyed vireos, and winter wrens. We’re also…

Show your love for forests and wildlife with this striking sticker, illustrated by Liz Wahid. Featuring the unmistakable pileated woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus) with its bold red crest and powerful…

This week in the woods, we’ve been seeing a lot of Monotropa in bloom – both ghost pipe and pinesap, shown here in the company of a bumble bee. Neither of these plants photosynthesize and…

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 its…