In the late 1980s, while in graduate school, I learned of mysterious mass die-offs (and eventual extinctions) of many frog species worldwide – events that played a big role in guiding me to a…

Readers interested in animal behavior are likely familiar with books such as Mind of the Raven, Geese of Beaver Bog, and Of Wolves and Men (the first two by Bernd Heinrich, the last by Barry Holstun…

Whenever one hears about bees these days, it is almost invariably to the European honey bee, Apis mellifera, that the reference is being made. Indeed, the health of this species is of justifiably…

My walking up here is a form of yoga practice, I suppose – call it the practice of being perfectly content. I’m descending today, down a steeply sloping ridge on the eastern-most edge of…

Helicopters. Keys. Whirligigs. Samaras. Whatever you call the winged seeds released by maple trees, here’s one more word for them: delicious. Like many New Englanders, I have fond childhood…

The view from atop the great Mayan pyramids of Tikal, in Guatemala’s Petén region, reveals something that is increasingly difficult to find in the tropics these days: unbroken natural…

A while back I had a few hives of honey bees parked at a beef farm down the road, tucked up against a stone wall just outside a pasture. One day the owner called to say that my bees had invaded a…

I’ve been trying to line things up to build a house for a few years now, and am getting nowhere fast. I’ve made some recent progress milling hardwood, though, that I’ll someday turn…

Meghan Oliver spotted these winged creatures going in and out of four ground nests clustered near each other. What are they?

Most people do not like sea lampreys even though they have never even seen one. The fish have a bad reputation as an invasive species in Lake Champlain. Their appearance is also alarming. These are…

An Illustrated Introduction to Some of our Region’s Turtles Turtles are rock stars in the animal world, noteworthy not because they’re pretty, but because they’re weird looking.…

Your May photos included spring wildflowers, a dramatic coyote and fawn game camera shot, and iridescent birds in flight. Some of you were out tree planting - on flood plains and city streets- and…

Last May, while out hiking, I came across a young fawn curled up in the ferns only three feet from the Appalachian Trail. My husband and our dog had already walked right by without noticing it. I…

Pop quiz: Describe a blue jay. Blue with a crest? Okay, but where exactly is the blue on a blue jay? What’s white on a blue jay? What’s black on a blue jay? And what’s distinctive…

Ben Haubrich stumbled on this scene while walking in the woods in mid-May; at first he thought it was an oil spill, but a closer look showed it was something else.

It’s often implied, if it’s not said outright, that nature is a cruel, cold place. We’ve all seen trees wrapped around each other fighting for light; late frosts that leave flower…

One August morning while hiking a trail in Crawford Notch, New Hampshire, I came upon a small cluster of the shiny cinnamon polypore mushroom (Coltricia cinnamomea). Upon closer examination I noticed…

A subscriber from southeastern Vermont, Katie Bowen, contacted us in the spring to ask advice about the problems she and her husband, Mark, were having with neighbors who were complaining about the…

Northern Woodlands was founded more than 20 years ago, and the idea back then, as I understand it, was to focus on the forests and forest culture of Vermont. In time, the state boundaries became…

In the early 1960s, Euell Gibbons wrote Stalking the Wild Asparagus and introduced millions of North Americans to the virtues of harvesting wild foods. Since that time, gathering wild edibles has…