This week in the woods, the arrival of snow means a shift in wildlife activity, and also the greater visibility of some more subtle sights as they become more obvious against a stark white background.…

Most winters, a few sparrows visit my yard, feeding on the seeds I scatter on the ground near my bird feeder. These particular sparrows have long tails, rusty crowns and eye-lines on their gray heads,…

It’s deep in winter, and a nor’easter is dumping snow outside. In between the howling winds you hear a boom! Maybe a heap of snow fell from the roof, you think, or a giant icicle crashed…

Ecologist Rick Van de Poll’s interests in the forest are as varied as the species that live there. He is a mycologist and a wetlands scientist, a teacher and a mountaineer, a poet and a creator…

While walking in a field, we encountered the winter forms of three common weeds. Can you identify them?

One winter day, while teaching a winter ecology class, I pulled on waders and rubber gloves, grabbed a catch net, and led my “Minibeasts of the Stream” program, discovering a rich variety…

This week in the woods, for our last post of 2023, we’re celebrating one of our most common and beautiful bird species: the blue jay. These brazen, intelligent birds – members of the…

This week in the woods, we found a flock of house finches in a thicket, and this male bird was obliging enough to hop up on a perch and show off his rosy red plumage. Although nowadays house finches…

Of all life’s synergies, I appreciate most the one between my propensity for domestic procrastination and my love of moving through the outdoors – countless adventures are born of it.…

Your November photos included early ice formations, porcupines, and colorful autumnal skies. At a high school in the Bronx, New York, Lawrence Culleton captured an image of a red-tailed hawk on a…

We were excited to learn recently that the New Hampshire chapter of Project Learning Tree (PLT) is receiving new support, thanks in large part to the New Hampshire Timberland Owners Association…

We spotted this only partially-frozen circular spot amid newly formed ice on the Ompompanoosuc River. What happened here?

In winter, river otters head upstream into the uplands, seeking areas of fast-moving water that remain open – at least open enough for an otter to slip into a stream in pursuit of fish. You…

This week in the woods, we encountered what looked like a patch of miniature Christmas wreaths on the forest floor. Thanks to identification help from the Upper Valley Land Trust’s Jason Berard,…

I’ve always loved the idea of watching the sky for shooting stars. But I’m much more likely to be up to watch the sunrise than I am to stay awake past midnight, when most meteor showers…

This week in the woods, cold and slushy “duck weather” defeated our best intentions, and we spent most of the past two days hiding inside with hot chocolate and slippers. We were thus…

This article is the last in a four-part series that focuses on forest carbon. A companion series, beginning this spring, will focus on climate change impacts and adaptation in forests. Alexandra…

With all the extreme weather events we’ve been having, I’ve been seeing lots of erosion on our access roads and skid trails. I’m concerned about losing access to my land and…

Surrounded by hardwood forest in northern Vermont, I process five cords of firewood annually for my family’s use. As gratifying as this work can be, I’ve often found myself wanting to do…

No other North American songbirds exhibit the unique bill structure, highly specialized diet, unpredictable movements, and opportunistic nesting behavior of our two crossbill species. Both the…