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Site Discussions

Penny
Mar 22, 2024
To the person talking live trap & relocation, that might be ok, if you would be ok with having someone else relocate porcupines to your forest area where they would chew up & kill your trees. Please, folks, take into…

From "Porcupines: Waddling Through Winter" »

Marion Gray
Mar 22, 2024
What a beautiful, passionate article!  Laurie has followed her dreams and pursued her love of the natural world and animals, and documented this through photography. Truly inspiring story! Thank you for sharing with NF readers.  Marion Gray, Warren,…

From "Laurie Dirkx Captures Wildlife in Photographs" »

Ginny
Mar 19, 2024
Thank you for this interesting article - and special thanks to Adelaide Tyrol for the extra beautiful illustration.  I have loved her work for years, and it’s a joy to see it regularly in The Outside Story.

From "For White-throated Sparrows, Opposites Attract" »

Carol Hausner
Mar 07, 2024
I enjoyed reading about your success with Eastern Bluebirds. I’m used to them losing out to invasive English sparrows rather than to our tree swallows.

From "March: Week One" »

Sandra Hall Bourrie
Mar 07, 2024
Behind our barn there has been a beautiful, fairly young tree that I was advised is an American elm. Watching it mature, with its beautiful canopy, has been a joy, until abruptly about a year and a half ago it…

From "A New Invasive Zigzagging Across North America" »

Debbie Marcus
Mar 05, 2024
Our bluebird family has overwintered for several years.  Papa and Mama bluebird hang out with their previous season’s brood, feasting on the dried mealworms we provide every morning (they are waiting at sun-up). They have learned to peck…

From "March: Week One" »

Kathy B
Mar 04, 2024
I have a bird house by my front door, that chickadee always nest in. Should I remove old abandoned nests, allowing new “tenants”  to build their own, or will they reuse old nests? I want to keep them at…

From "The Amazing Chickadee" »

Steven Setzke
Feb 29, 2024
Does hardwood and softwood make a difference in the angle you sharpen a chain at?

From "Tricks of the Trade: Myths and Mistakes of Chainsaw Sharpening" »

Charlie Devine
Feb 28, 2024
Earliest known leaf miners were recently found in Massachusetts in a 300+ million year old fossil… https://phys.org/news/2023-10-unearthing-leaf-miners-ancient-million-year-old.html

From "Documenting Natural Resources and Interesting Insects with Charley Eiseman" »

Michael Nerrie
Feb 28, 2024
I HIGHLY RECOMMEND Charley’s works, his book ‘Tracks & Sign of Insects and Other Invertebrates’ (http://charleyeiseman.com/publications/) and his e-book ‘Leafminers of North America’. At Distant Hill Gardens, our nonprofit environmental learning center in Walpole, New Hampshire,…

From "Documenting Natural Resources and Interesting Insects with Charley Eiseman" »

Kevin Bernadino
Feb 22, 2024
We had a flock of about 20 pine grosbeaks last winter. That hung around for several weeks and ate us out of house and home!

From "A Tale of Two Grosbeaks" »

Russ Cohen
Feb 22, 2024
What a great profile of Charley.  I heartily recommend his “Tracks and Sign” book (http://charleyeiseman.com/publications/).  Its content could provide a virtually inexhaustible supply of content for Northern Woodlands’ “What in the Woods is That?” quiz.

From "Documenting Natural Resources and Interesting Insects with Charley Eiseman" »

Lisa
Feb 20, 2024
The lack of snowpack over the last 20 years breaks my heart. Yes, I miss xc skiing out my back door, but what truly scares me is the effect this is having on our environment. I worry about the ancient maples…

From "How Ebbing Snow Cover Affects Plants and Animals" »

Steven
Feb 20, 2024
Great article. Finally, someone is starting to talk about the catastrophic loss of winter in the only sense that really matters - loss. Not “transition,” or “change,” but loss, period. Anyone who does not feel a deep sense of loss…

From "How Ebbing Snow Cover Affects Plants and Animals" »

Brian Dunham
Feb 13, 2024
This is somewhat similar to the northward migrations of backyard feeder birds such as tufted titmice and red bellied woodpeckers. These southern birds are now being sighting throughout New England. Similarly to opossums, these expansions probably have to do with…

From "Opossums Find Cold Comfort in New England’s Winters" »

Brian Dunham
Feb 13, 2024
A few years back, we saw a dead opossum on the road shortly before avoiding two that were very much alive. Strangely, the opossum pair appeared to be travelling together. Surprisingly, this was near Lancaster in northern New Hampshire, which…

From "Opossums Find Cold Comfort in New England’s Winters" »

Brian Dunham
Feb 09, 2024
Eastern newt toxins might be specific to vertebrates, especially fish. Supposedly, though, crayfish also avoid them.

From "Dragonfly Predation on Eastern Newts" »

Charlie
Feb 09, 2024
We have a possum living in our backyard this winter, midcoast Maine.

From "Opossums Find Cold Comfort in New England’s Winters" »

Jenna O'del
Feb 03, 2024
Thank you Tim! That sounds like a nice diversity of pine cones!

From "Pine Cones: The Complicated Lives of Conifer Seeds" »

William Thorne
Jan 30, 2024
Wonderfully written, engaging article. Thank you very much.

From "Discovering Orion" »