Approximately 50 people contribute to the words and images in each issue of the magazine. Here are some of our Spring 2023 contributors. {image2} Conrad Baker (“Autism Nature Trail,” page…

Roger Damon served more than 48 years on the Mount Washington Volunteer Ski Patrol, but he didn’t know that we would be publishing a photo essay in this issue focused on the Mount Washington…

People often tell us that they read each issue of Northern Woodlands cover-to-cover. I can relate. I was a cover-to-cover reader from the very first issue a friend placed in my hands, back in 2007.…

One of the year’s first insects to appear on my deck railing is the winter firefly, Photinus corrusca, which shows up on warm days throughout winter. A brown beetle with pink parentheses…

Goldenrods in bloom are the Grand Central Station for insects. Some insects come in search of nectar, others for pollen, more for mates, and still others are predators for whom the diverse community…

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…

While I was photographing pollinators on a patch of meadow near a bike path, a bumblebee caught my attention. It appeared to have an enormous, clubbed antenna, as well as a normal-size one. Closer…

While I was searching the drawers of the Saint Michael’s College insect collection, a spectacular little beetle caught my eye. The pearlescent elytra, or wing coverings, were marked with the…

Winter rambles often take me to East Woods in South Burlington, Vermont. While birders gaze skyward, I find myself drawn to movement on the ground. Snow cover reduces invertebrate numbers, and those…

On days when I drop off my wife at her dance class, I explore Red Rocks Park in South Burlington, Vermont. I meet dog walkers and a few hardy birders but as far as I know, I’m the only one out…

During our first autumn in Westford, Vermont, a wave of ladybugs attempted to make our home theirs for the winter. My wife expressed concern that our toddler might eat one. I replied, “Well…

If you live near water, then beginning in late spring, you likely will have some fascinating insects flocking to your porch. Caddisflies might pass for gray, brown, or black moths, but they are worth…

During my first lecture in front of a large room of students, a small spider put me – and my 220 students – at ease. As I flicked on the overhead projector, I spotted a ¼-inch…

If you look beneath the damp undersides of cardboard and other packing materials, you’re likely to find tiny creatures that typically hide under fallen leaves and rotting wood, where…

Many beetles are slow fliers and runners, but six-spotted tiger beetles (Cicindela sexguttata) are masters of speed. A metallic flash of green or sometimes blue may be your only glimpse of this…

More than 400 million years ago, when invertebrates ruled Ordovician seas, the Anostraca, or fairy shrimp, evolved within the branchiopod crustaceans. They moved from oceans up through estuaries to…

Twenty-five years ago, a student brought me a dead, tattered specimen of a moth. Its prodigious wingspan, colorfully banded fuzzy body, and spectacular wings were unmistakable: cecropia moths stand…